These Side-By-Side Photos Reveal Just How Much The Criminal Minds Cast Has Evolved

Thomas Gibson – a.k.a. Aaron Hotchner – looked all set to be in Criminal Minds to the end. And then in 2016 his character suddenly left without warning. Fans were blindsided; the actor had become the franchise’s leading man after Mandy Patinkin’s own sudden departure in season three, and he was a firm but lovable team leader. But Gibson was given his marching orders after allegedly assaulting one of the show’s writers during an argument about an episode. He’s since focused most of his efforts on his self-penned directorial effort The Writer’s Bible.

Daniel Henney first graced the Criminal Minds franchise in spinoff Beyond Borders before moving over to the original show. The actor, who played Special Operations Agent and army veteran Matt Simmons, didn’t waste any time in finding new work after the show wrapped. He landed roles in the sequel to Korean action movie Confidential Assignment and Amazon fantasy drama The Wheel of Time.

A.J. Cook’s character Jennifer “JJ” Jareau had a pretty eventful Criminal Minds journey. She started as the team’s media liaison, worked her way up to field agent, got married, became a mom twice and even survived a kidnapping. And despite a mysterious departure in season six – her contract was apparently dropped – Cook was a fan favorite until the end. Since the show wrapped, the actress appears to have been enjoying some downtime.

Kirsten Vangsness holds quite the Criminal Minds distinction. No other cast member has graced both the original and its spinoffs Suspect Behavior and Beyond Borders. Vangsness played Penelope Garcia – the team’s technical analyst and badass vegan feminist – across all three shows and even penned a handful of episodes, too. Her only credit since is as a narrator on 2020 short film Curtains.

Lola Glaudini left Criminal Minds after its second season, but her character remains one of the show’s most memorable. Elle Greenway was assaulted by one of the team’s suspects, suffered a major mental health breakdown and fatally shot a criminal. And it was this latter incident which essentially forced her to resign. Since then, Glaudini has shown up on Ray Donovan, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and She’s in Portland.

Shemar Moore left the CBS procedural after 13 seasons of playing Derek Morgan. The actor is no stranger to the long-term recurring role, either. He previously portrayed Malcolm Winter on The Young and the Restless for a whopping 441 episodes and has since appeared as Daniel Harrelson on another CBS hit – S.W.A.T. – for four seasons. Moore’s casting in the latter was reportedly instrumental to his exit from the Criminal Minds franchise.

Aisha Tyler joined the Criminal Minds team relatively late – in season 11 to be exact. But the star’s character Dr. Tara Lewis quickly became a fan favorite. Tyler also found the time to do voice work for FX animation Archer, be a panelist on The Talk and host the Whose Line Is It Anyway? revival during her stint as the forensic psychologist. Since the CBS procedural wrapped, the workaholic has also added films Bad Therapy and Friendsgiving to her resume.

A regular of the Law and Order franchise, Jayne Atkinson joined another hugely successful procedural in 2007 as Erin Strauss. The Section Chief of the BAU intermittently popped up across the first eight seasons. After leaving in 2014, Atkinson landed recurring roles in House of Cards, Madam Secretary and Bluff City Law. Though she did make a brief return in Criminal Minds for its last ever episode.

Adam Rodriguez was cast to help fill the Shemar Moore-shaped hole that emerged after Criminal Minds’ 13th season. The actor instantly struck a chord with longtime viewers as FBI Fugitive Task Force Agent Luke Alvez. You might also have seen Rodriguez as union boss Raul in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and in the hit reboot of One Day at a Time.

Jeanne Tripplehorn’s linguistics expert Dr. Alex Blake had quite the turbulent journey during her three-season stint on Criminal Minds. After returning from early retirement the character finally gave her job up for good after nearly dying in the line of duty. Tripplehorn also decided to take some time out after waving goodbye to the CBS franchise. But she eventually resumed her career with roles in Gloria Bell and We Only Know So Much.

Although he only joined Criminal Minds in its third season as profiler David Rossi, Joe Mantegna is still considered as one of the bedrocks of the show. The veteran actor continued to voice The Simpsons’ Fat Tony during his lengthy stint in the BAU. And in 2020 he racked up another credit with a performance in Rolling Thunder – an indie movie apparently filmed in just 24 hours.

Rachel Nichols spent just a solitary year in the BAU as Ashley Seaver – the FBI cadet with a serial killer father. After her character was moved over to a task force dealing with domestic trafficking at the end of season six, the actress played Angela Roth in DC Universe drama Titans. Then, in 2019 Nichols joined the cast of Amazon’s history altering series The Man in the High Castle.

One of the most famous names to enter the Criminal Minds world, former teen favorite Jennifer Love Hewitt was something of a one-season wonder. Her character FBI agent Kate Callahan spent just a year on the BAU. But it was an eventful one – having nearly been human trafficked while heavily pregnant. Hewitt went relatively quiet following her departure but returned to screens in emergency services drama 9-1-1.

Mandy Patinkin was undoubtedly the starriest name during Criminal Minds’ early years. But during season three the Chicago Hope actor decided he’d had enough of playing profiler Jason Gideon and simply stopped showing up to work! He later told TV Guide the role was “destructive to [my] soul.” Ouch. Luckily, Patinkin went on to find a less soul-destroying part in Homeland. He’s also graced the big screen in Wonder, Life Itself and, erm, Smurfs: The Lost Village.

Some Criminal Minds fans are still not over Stephen Walker’s death. Played by Damon Gupton, the special agent met his maker in his only season with the BAU thanks to a car accident set up by the villainous Mr. Scratch. Following his character’s untimely demise, Gupton enjoyed recurring roles in Dirty John and Black Lightning – playing the titular hero’s pal Bill Henderson in the latter.

Best-known as Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nicholas Brendan popped up a few times each of Criminal Minds’ first seven seasons. The actor played Penelope’s former hacker boyfriend Kevin Lynch until 2014. He then went on to appear in the films Redwood, The Nanny and King of Crime. But in 2020 Brendon found himself on the wrong side of the law and was given a three-year probation sentence for assault.

Brian Appel enjoyed an 18-episode stint as Agent Grant Anderson on Criminal Minds. But you’re more likely to find him behind the cameras these days than in front of them. That’s right: Appel now largely works as a producer on reality TV shows such as The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Love & Listings.

Paget Brewster’s Emily Prentiss twice went from Interpol to the Behavioral Analysis Unit during her lengthy arc on Criminal Minds. The character eventually replaced Hotch as the BAU’s unit chief, too. While filming the CBS procedural, Brewster also voiced roles in Bojack Horseman, American Dad and the DuckTales revival. Following the show’s end, she portrayed silver screen icon Tallulah Bankhead in Netflix nostalgia-fest Hollywood.

Josh Stewart appeared in 18 episodes of Criminal Minds as JJ’s other half: Detective William LaMontagne Jr. And he obviously enjoyed working with his on-screen wife A.J. Cook. For Stewart also cast the actress in his 2019 directorial effort Back Fork – an indie drama set in West Virginia based which deals with the opioid epidemic.

Matthew Gray Gubler reportedly appeared in more Criminal Minds episodes than any other cast member. The actor appeared as Dr. Spencer Reid – the Behavioral Analysis Unit’s Supervisory Special Agent – no fewer than 323 times over the show’s 15-season run. Since waving goodbye to the character he’d played most of his adult life, Gubler bagged the roles of boyfriend Darren in psychological tale Horse Girl and mystery man Wes in Hulu comedy Dollface.

We know, right? Some of the stars look so different compared to when they first started out. It’s hardly surprising given how long the team have been solving cases! And as you would expect with any long-running TV show, there are a lot of behind-the-scenes secrets producers would probably rather you didn't know. Let’s uncover the evidence.

Criminal Minds is not noted for its restraint, and the cast know this better than anyone. “We will always find new ways to kill people,” Jennifer “JJ” Jareau actress A.J. Cook told Real Style Network in 2012. “Sometimes I leave those read-throughs a little nauseous. It’s hard.”

Mandy Patinkin starred as Jason Gideon for the first three seasons of Criminal Minds, and then he just upped and left. He’d had enough, it transpired, of the show’s grim content. “It was very destructive to my soul and my personality,” he told New York magazine in 2012.

The gender wage gap is still a problem, especially in the TV industry, and it seems that Criminal Minds was no different in that regard. In 2013, for example, it was reported that actresses Kirsten Vangsness and A.J. Cook were considering walking away from the show unless they started making the same as their male counterparts.

Thomas Gibson, who played Aaron Hotchner, brought no end of controversy crashing down onto Criminal Minds. In 2013 it came out that he’d been catfished by a woman pretending to be a fan and had sent her sexy videos to boot. However, he was still technically married to his estranged wife…

Even the opening credits of Criminal Minds are designed to be unsettling. Indeed, watch the background and you’ll see mugshots of multiple real-life murderers. In particular, keep your eyes peeled and you can spot Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy and Lee Harvey Oswald.

After Mandy Patinkin left the show under fairly acrimonious circumstances, he was replaced by Special Agent Rossi, played by Joe Mantegna. Moreover, the first time Rossi appeared on Criminal Minds, he fired at a duck – and Patinkin’s character had loved birds. “You do the math,” executive producer Breen Frazier told BuzzFeed in 2014.

When Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation appeared on the show as a murderer, writer and sci-fi fan Rick Dunkle was absolutely over the moon. He asked if he could be involved and so was cast as Wheaton’s victim. And, understandably, Dunkle was delighted about the bragging rights he got.

In the episode 200, JJ is tortured. And yes, some of what she went through was actually real. In fact, as well as being chained up, the actress opted to undergo waterboarding – a decidedly unpleasant torture technique – in order to make her scenes more realistic.

Sometimes Criminal Minds looks no further than the news to find its plots. In fact, many of its episodes – including some really disturbing ones – are based on real-life cases, although the show does tend to embellish them quite a bit.

In 2010 CBS made the harsh decision to ax A.J. Cook and cut the screen time of Paget Brewster. The two actresses were stung, their co-stars were angry, and fans were outraged. As a result, a petition sprung up, and it was signed not only by Criminal Minds stars but also by iconic actresses like Helen Mirren.

In 2013 Shemar Moore, a.k.a. Derek Morgan, became good buddies with Criminal Minds guest actor Keith Tisdell. Moore even invited him to work at his business, Baby Girl Inc., which donates a percentage of proceeds to an MS charity. Unfortunately, however, Tisdell ended up stealing over $60,000 from the organization. The courts tend to frown on people who steal money from charities, though, and Tisdell was duly convicted of felony grand theft and ordered to pay back the funds.

Thomas Gibson was an integral part of Criminal Minds right up until July 2016, when his well-known anger issues finally got the better of him. Specifically, after a quarrel with a producer that ended in a kick, he was fired, and his character Aaron Hotchner was written out of the show.

The Criminal Minds cast get some help from none other than the FBI before the cameras start rolling. “About a week before we start shooting, they have all the writers gather and they bring in people from the FBI to talk to them,” Jeanne Tripplehorn told The West Australian in 2013. Apparently, however, the FBI presentations aren’t pleasant, and – like the final scripts – they can definitely leave people feeling sick.

2016 really wasn’t a good year for Criminal Minds. As well as having to fire Thomas Gibson, the producers also had to ax casting director Scott David when it turned out that his “casting workshop” was charging people for the opportunity to audition.

In October 2007 Criminal Minds won an Award for Excellence in Television from Human Rights First. And while this may come as a surprise, the show actually earned the award became the episode “Lesson Learned” portrayed non-violent interrogation techniques as more effective than violent ones.

After being jerked around a lot by the network, Paget Brewster did eventually return to Criminal Minds as Prentiss. But she bore a huge grudge, and in an October 2015 interview with The AV Club she described CBS as “scummy.”

By the time Thomas Gibson was fired, Shemar Moore had already left the show. But when the news hit, he still posted a video apparently aimed at Gibson in which he spoke about “karma.” Was there some kind of feud between the two? Well, Moore denied it, yet stories persist about the pair fighting on set.

Jeanne Tripplehorn wasn’t impressed by Mandy Patinkin’s criticism of the heavy use of violence in Criminal Minds. “I think it’s really funny that people are giving [his view] any kind of attention,” she told Fox News in 2014. But by the end of that year she too had left the show, under ambiguous circumstances.

In 2012 a ten-year-old boy in California testified that he didn’t think he would be punished for fatally shooting his neo-Nazi father because a similar thing had happened on Criminal Minds. “A bad father did something to his kids and the kid did the exact same thing I did,” the child explained.

Over the years, the producers and researchers on the show have become very well acquainted with the logistics of crime. Some might say, in fact, that the cast have become a little paranoid. Rick Dunkle, for example, decided to get a dog to reduce the likelihood of home invasion. And other staffers went even further; some even ended up getting bulletproof windows installed in their houses, for example.