Frasier: Why Olivia From Paramount's Reboot Looks (And Sounds) So Familiar

At the start of the 2023 "Frasier" revival on Paramount+, Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) is arguably in the midst of a downturn in his life. While Frasier is rich and plenty successful, his partner of around 20 years has just left him and he's been more-or-less absent from the life of his son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott). So, in the series premiere, he decides to rekindle his relationship with his son, who lives in Boston, under the pretense of giving a guest lecture at Harvard.

There he meets Olivia Finch (Toks Olagundoye), the head of the school's psychology department. Before long, she becomes an important player in his brand-new Boston life. As a psychologist, she urges Frasier to make an effort with Freddy, and as a Harvard professor, she's instrumental in convincing him to stick around and continue teaching at the university.

The actor who plays Olivia in the "Frasier" revival may not just look but perhaps even sound familiar to viewers from some of her past work, which largely consists of TV roles on popular live-action and cartoon series alike. Here's where you may have seen or heard her before.

Sci-fi sitcom "The Neighbors" premiered on ABC in 2012 and aired for two seasons of 22 episodes each. The series takes place in a wealthy New Jersey community comprised largely of space aliens masquerading as humans. Each of them, notably, is named after a well-known professional athlete. Toks Olagundoye plays the wife of the Zabvronian aliens' Supreme Leader, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who was named after a real-life Olympic gold medalist in track and field.

Olagundoye is credited in all 44 episodes of "The Neighbors" as a member of its main cast. By the time she joined the series, she had been acting for about a decade, and had already appeared on shows like "Law & Order" and "Ugly Betty." In an interview with Slate, she described her character on "The Neighbors" as both a dream job and a career milestone.

"If you had asked me to put down on a piece of paper what my ideal job was, this is it. I get to be goofy and quirky and sweet at the same time — to play a likable character who also has her strange unlikable things. I just love the character," she said. "I would like to say it's my big break."

The "Castle" Season 8 premiere, which originally aired on September 21, 2015, introduces Toks Olagundoye as a character named Hayley Shipton. For the rest of the season, which is the show's last, she serves as a member of its principal cast.

Olagundoye told The Hollywood Reporter that she didn't know just how popular "Castle" had become when she accepted this role. "I knew it was a big show and it had been on for several seasons, but I didn't really know until the fans started following me," she said. "I didn't realize how big a show it was worldwide."

From the get-go, Hayley is something of a mystery, appearing suddenly in the midst of a murder investigation. Soon, however, she proves to be a valuable asset to Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and becomes particularly close with his daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn). As viewers eventually find out, Hayley used to be a member of the U.K.'s secret service, MI6, hence her considerable skill as a private investigator.

Toks Olagundoye made her debut as a voice actor in 2014, as Fish Stew Pizza matriarch Nanefua Pizza in "Steven Universe" Season 1. While Nanefua's subsequent appearances are sporadic, they continue through the "Steven Universe" movie in 2019.

One of her biggest voice acting roles to date kicked off in 2017 when she began portraying Mrs. Beakley in the "DuckTales" reboot. While unassuming on the outside, working as Scrooge McDuck's (David Tennant) housekeeper, Mrs. Beakley was a secret agent in a past life — mirroring Olagundoye's "Castle" character. She therefore joins in on some of the show's adventures from time to time.

"I was raised by some pretty strong ladies," Olagundoye told Comic Book Resources. "My mother is Norwegian, my great-grandmother is German, my other grandmother is Nigerian, and they all worked, they all had their own businesses. One of my grandmothers was in the resistance during World War II. I mean, I come from some really solid, strong stock of women who don't apologize for much, they get it done without complaining. So Mrs. Beakley is for them, I guess."

Through the balance of the 2010s and into the 2020s, Olagundoye lent her voice talents to a wide variety of cartoons, including the "Guardians of the Galaxy" show, the 2019 "Carmen Sandiego" series, Netflix's "Castlevania," "Adventure Time: Distant Lands," "Beavis and Butt-Head," and "Family Guy," among others.

Just as Toks Olagundoye became a major player in the last season of "Castle," she likewise shows up as a key character in the 7th and final season of the HBO comedy "Veep." At its start, protagonist Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has served one partial term as president only to lose her reelection. Nevertheless, in Season 7 she decides to run for a second presidential term four years after that loss.

Her closest rival during the ensuing presidential primary is a former senator and Queens Borough President named Kemi Talbot, played by Olagundoye. For most of the primary, they're neck and neck, and Meyer just barely comes out ahead in the end. That said, the "Veep" series finale jumps ahead in time to Meyer's funeral in 2045. During this brief look into the future, it turns out that Meyer has indeed become president at some point prior and served two full terms in office.

While the reputation of TV shows and movies adapted from video games isn't great, Netflix's "Arcane" broke from tradition and became a massive hit for the streaming service. "Arcane" is based on the multiplayer online battle arena smash hit "League of Legends," revolving largely around two characters well familiar to its existing fanbase named Vi (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell).

Toks Olagundoye, meanwhile, plays a skilled and conniving politician named Mel Medarda. Unlike most other members of the show's main cast, Mel was not a major part of "League of Legends" lore prior to her considerable "Arcane" role.

In a Screen Rant interview, Olagundoye described how she was particularly proud of her work voicing Mel. "I remember the very last time that I recorded, I got really emotional because what I was watching was so beautiful and so well done," she said. "I just got really emotional about the fact that I get to do something so freaking cool."

"Arcane" premiered in its entirety in November of 2021. Between then and now, Olagundoye has voiced characters on the podcast "Batman Unburied," the 2022 "Saints Row" video game, "Tales of the Jedi," "Star Trek: Lower Decks," and "Strange Planet," among other series. She also plays an important part in the 2023 TV adaptation of "Fatal Attraction." Given all that, her role as Olivia on "Frasier" comes during what may well be the busiest chapter of her prolific TV acting career.