Felicity Huffman will be coming back to the screens very soon in a new role on the next season of Paramount+’s Criminal Minds spinoff titled Evolution.
The star will be playing a doctor with deep connections to other lead characters in the franchise.
This role marks the first major network opportunity for the Emmy-winning former Desperate Housewives star since her involvement in the college admissions scandal that broke in 2019.
Huffman was previously set to star in a spinoff of The Good Doctor, but last year ABC passed on making it.
Huffman will play “Dr. Jill Gideon, a brilliant biological psychiatrist, who agrees to help the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit investigate a murderous conspiracy theory. Jill is reluctant to return to the bureau’s elite team given her complicated history with David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and her dead ex-husband, Jason Gideon (previously played by original series star Mandy Patinkin), but soon realizes her specific skill set could help them uncover another clue to the elusive Gold Star mystery.”
The role has been announced as a guest part, and it’s a description that may see the star returning back for future episodes.
Huffman previously was caught paying $15,000 to falsify her daughter’s SAT score and was sentenced to 14 days in prison in 2019 alongside a $30,000 and 250 hours of community service.
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She previously told NBC News she is left with “undying shame” about the incident.
“So when [college fixer Rick Singer] slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seems like — and I know this seems crazy at the time — but that was my only option to give my daughter a future,” she said. “I know hindsight is 20/20 but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it. So, I did it.” Huffman’s community service organizer further told NBC News that the actress came in ready to “do the hard work,” adding, “Felicity Huffman is one of the most beautiful people I’ve met in my lifetime. And I know she has had a hiccup. But it’s not the hiccup — it’s how you come through the hiccup.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution launched in 2022 on Paramount+ and stars Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Zach Gilford, Ryan-James Hatanaka with Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster. It’s the spinoff of Criminal Minds, which ran for 2005 to 2020 on CBS.
Season 1 of the series saw the FBI’s BAU team dealing with an unsub who built a network of serial killers during the COVID lockdowns, forcing the team to hunt them down one at a time.
Erica Messer serves as showrunner and executive producer on “Criminal Minds: Evolution.” Breen Frazier, Chris Barbour, Glenn Kershaw, and Mark Gordon also executive produce. ABC Signature and CBS Studios produce.
Huffington is repped by Atlas Artists and Wolf-Kasteler PR.
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