Why Rosalind From The Rookie Looks So Familiar

"The Rookie" brought "Castle" star Nathan Fillion back into the crime investigation world as John Nolan, a middle-aged man looking to start over as a rookie police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. Of course, Nolan can't be a rookie forever, and after four seasons, he is training his own rookie (making him a rookie training officer, so the name still fits). Among the things that make the series successful enough to warrant a fifth season is the collection of compelling characters.

One character that continues to make appearances is convicted serial killer Rosalind Dyer. While she has been in prison since long before audiences meet her in Season 2, Episode 10, "The Dark Side," she holds sway over others on the outside and even organizes a plot to kidnap Officer Lucy Chen (Melissa O'Neil) by convincing another serial killer to do her bidding. She immediately takes to Nolan, and their connection grows over her appearances in six episodes until she meets her end in Season 5.

Series creator Alexi Hawley spoke with Entertainment Weekly about building the connection between the two. "It is an interesting relationship and Annie is so good," he said. "I always err on the side of putting great actors in scenes together. If there's a way to get Annie back that feels real and not cheap, then we can't go wrong with writing good scenes for good actors. But it would have to be organic." The Annie he's talking about is the actor who plays Rosalind, and if you think you've seen her before, it's because she's been in a handful of very successful series since her start in the early 2000s.

If you make a list of the most iconic TV shows of all time, there is a fair chance that Fox's smash hit "24" will make an appearance. The action-thriller follows the investigations of the Los Angeles branch of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) as they work to thwart some of the most significant threats the city and country has seen. What made the series revolutionary was the 24 episodes spanning one full day, all happening in real time, and the compelling performance of series lead Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, CTU's most dependable operative.

Of course, Jack Bauer is never alone in his attempts to stop the terrorist threats. He always has a talented cadre of fellow operatives, including Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), Curtis Manning (Roger Cross), and Chole O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub). In Seasons 7 and 8, he is assisted by FBI Agent Renee Walker, played expertly by Annie Wersching. Initially horrified by Bauer's lack of concern for the rules as he chases leads, she eventually adopts his methods and is fired after torturing a suspect to near death. She meets her end in Season 8 while reprising her undercover operation with the Russian mob.

Wersching told MovieWeb, "I was an absolutely huge, huge fan of the show before I joined it, so just being a part of such an iconic show and getting to play a role as amazing as Renee Walker. I really, really loved this part, and in your career you hope that you have greater things in your future, but it's hard for me not to, at this time, think of it as sort of a role of a lifetime."

There is no shortage of movies or television shows that center around the hunger and politics of vampires, the mystical properties of witches, or the virile need to feed of werewolves. But there is a subgenre that also focuses on the teen angst of these same characters, thanks primarily to the success of "Twilight." The CW piggybacked on the genre's success with its series based on the "Vampire Diaries" novels.

While the show centers around Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and her love triangle with Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder), it explores many different characters over centuries of storylines. One of the many characters that show up is Stefan and Damon's mother, the evil Lily Salvatore (Annie Wersching). She is a primary antagonist through Seasons 6 and 7 before she kills herself as part of an effort to kill the Traveler Julian (Todd Lasance).

Wersching spoke with Digital Spy, revealing that she hadn't known about the show before auditioning but signed on once she heard about the plans for the character. "It really wasn't a show that was on my radar – I hadn't seen it. I went into an audition for it and when I knew they were interested, I started doing my research on it. I talked to a couple of people that I knew had worked on it before and I made sure they all had a good time," she said. "I also asked one of the producers if she could give me a little of Mamma Salvatore's story and their plans for the character. That was really helpful, because at least I could see where it was going. Once I read that, I was definitely sold."

Out of all the tropes that movies and TV shows use to bring in fans who are fascinated with a specific subject matter, one of the most common is time travel. From "Back to the Future" to "Avengers: Endgame," time travel is a useful plot device that allows writers to create deep storylines involving pivotal historical moments. NBC brought that trope into the captivating series "Timeless," which deals with a group of historical experts and special operatives who protect time from a mysterious organization called Rittenhouse.

Annie Wersching played a character named Emma Whitmore, the second pilot of the "Lifeboat" time machine. She makes many trips through time before faking her own death in 19th-century Missouri to avoid further threats from Rittenhouse but becomes a secondary antagonist as a double agent.

Wersching spoke with Brief Take about her character and the dynamic she had with the female lead, Lucy (Abigail Spencer). "I love the Lucy-Emma dynamic. I love all the scenes from season two in which she calls her princess, and the fighting stepsisters kind of vibe. I love that whole dynamic between the two of them on the show," she shared. "I think that Emma in general is someone who, if she had more people around her who were more supportive, she might not have turned out to be quite as villainous. Of course she doesn't see herself as villainous at all."

One of the lesser-talked-about Marvel Television series is "Marvel's Runaways," which follows the team of titular teenage superheroes breaking away from their evil parents, known as the Pride, to find their place in the world of superpowered beings. Annie Wersching appears as one of the evil parents, a mother named Leslie Ellerh Dean and a leader of the cult-like Church of Gibborim.

At the beginning of the show, Leslie is an inattentive mother who is trying to find the work-life balance that all power moms look to find. The only difference is that she has a cult and a relationship with an alien to keep above board. In an interview with Rich Girl Network TV, Wersching spoke about how she relates to the character as a mom herself, comparing Leslie's attempt at reconciliation with her daughter with her building a relationship with her real-life sons.

Starfleet has one job: to explore space and discover everything they can about it. While it is a peaceful organization, its members never do seem to figure out how to avoid conflict with other races. Whether it's the Klingon Empire, the Romulans, or someone else, they always seem to find a delicate situation to navigate. One recurring villain is the Borg, who first appear in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and are led by the Borg Queen.

While there were two other actors before her (Alice Krige in "Star Trek: First Contact" and Susanna Thompson on "Star Trek: Voyager"), Annie Wersching landed the role on "Star Trek: Picard." Wersching's iteration of the character is from an alternate timeline and disconnected from the rest of her race. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is set to execute her, but instead, the two nemeses form an uneasy alliance to fix the timeline.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wersching confessed that the subject matter of her role hit too close to home. "It just makes you wildly uncomfortable, knowing there are people in the world who think like that for real," she said. "Star Trek has always been so good about acceptance for everyone. And it is very strange to see the totalitarianism that is happening in this episode. It is not something that [the writers] had to reach that far into their imaginations to find, unfortunately."