Life and career

Early life

Aylesworth was born in Evanston, Illinois, and is of Dutch, Welsh, and Japanese ancestry, although Aylesworth is an Anglo-Saxon name. She lived in Springfield, Illinois, from 1987 to 1988 where she first became interested in acting. After understudying in several productions at the Springfield Theatre Centre, Aylesworth was cast in the role of Consuelo in West Side Story, while her family was preparing to move to Seattle, Washington. When her family left for Seattle, she remained in Springfield with family friends for the duration of the play's run.

Early career

After joining her family in Seattle, Aylesworth attended the University of Washington and studied neuroscience. While attending the University of Washington, Aylesworth participated in several local theatre productions including Invisible Friends at the Seattle Children's Theatre and the Intiman Theatre Company's production of Peter Pan where she played Wendy.

Aylesworth's performance in Peter Pan brought her to the attention of talent scouts at ABC, leading to the beginning of her television and film career as Rebecca Lewis on the soap opera One Life to Live. After her character was written out of One Life to Live, she appeared in the independent film Childhood's End and the final episode of the HBO series Lifestories: Families in Crisis. During this time Aylesworth also appeared in at least three Off Broadway productions.

Following a guest appearance on Law & Order and a supporting role in the miniseries A Will of Their Own, Aylesworth had minor appearances in the movies Random Hearts and You've Got Mail followed by a guest star role in the CBS series Now and Again. Soon after NBC cast Aylesworth as Becca Coltrane in the pilot for the series Sherman's March, however, it was not picked up and aired as a standalone television movie.

Aylesworth continued her work on television with guest appearances in The West Wing, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Ed as well as being cast in a lead role in the supernatural hospital drama All Souls. When All Souls failed to be continued, Aylesworth joined the cast of The American Embassy in the second episode, although she was also credited in the pilot.

24

Main article: Michelle Dessler

Following the cancellation of The American Embassy, Aylesworth auditioned for the part of Nina Myers on Fox Network's 24 but the role went to Sarah Clarke. When casting began for 24's second season, Aylesworth again auditioned, this time for the part of Kate Warner, but the role went to Sarah Wynter. However, the producers were impressed with her and asked her to join the cast for a ten episode recurring role as Michelle Dessler, a CTU agent. Despite being credited as a guest star for the entire season, she appeared in all 24 episodes.

Director Jon Cassar quickly noticed the "chemistry" between Aylesworth and her costar Carlos Bernard, which led to a decision allowing the actors to develop their characters' onscreen relationship. The relationship between Tony Almeida and Michelle quickly became popular with many fans and later would resurface as one of the driving forces in 24's seventh season.

While on hiatus from 24 after season two, Aylesworth filmed an episode for the second season of The Dead Zone, playing a love interest for Anthony Michael Hall's Johnny Smith. By 24's third season, Aylesworth had become a main cast member with Tony and Michelle now married and holding leadership positions at CTU. However, when the season concluded, the writers announced only the characters of Jack Bauer, Chloe O'Brian and John Keeler would return, with the remainder of the cast being dropped. Upon being released from 24, Aylesworth was cast as Chandra Moore in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the lab's new DNA analyst, and while the role was intended to be recurring, it only lasted for the first episode of CSI's fifth season.

During 24 season 4, it was decided some of the cast from previous seasons would return including Carlos Bernard, Dennis Haysbert, and Reiko Aylesworth. In the twelfth episode, Aylesworth returned, with Michelle Dessler now a high level bureaucrat within the CTU hierarchy. Michelle served as CTU Director for the remainder of the season and resigned shortly thereafter in order to remarry Tony Almeida. Aylesworth's time on 24 came to a conclusion in the opening episode of the fifth season when Michelle was killed by a car bomb.

Post-24 roles

Following her departure from 24, Aylesworth has remained active in both television and movies as well as theatre. Her first leading role in a feature film was in the independent, romantic drama Crazylove where she worked alongside Bruno Campos and former 24 costar Paul Schulze. Crazylove tells the story of Letty Mayer, a school teacher who suffers a nervous breakdown and while institutionalized, meets Michael (Campos) and the two begin a dangerous and unpredictable romance. She partnered with her former 24 costar Xander Berkeley in the Sci Fi Channel made-for-television movie, Magma: Volcanic Disaster. In a guest start role on the short-lived series Conviction, she played a renowned attorney who killed her husband and then defended herself at the murder trial. When the cast was selected for the series 3 lbs, Aylesworth was chosen for the role of Dr. Adrienne Holland, but the pilot was rejected by CBS. The following season, CBS decided to buy the series for a late fall 2006 premiere, but the lead roles were recast, including Aylesworth's. It is unknown whether she declined the 3 lbs role or she was not offered it again.

Soon after the conclusion of 24's fifth season, Aylesworth and her 24 costar D. B. Woodside filmed the short, First which was also written, produced, and directed by Woodside. Aylesworth's character, Angelina Marveau, was "a fallen French nun" who was fighting to choose between her religious beliefs and first love, a nihilistic, American professor, who was portrayed by Woodside.

Years 2006-2007

In 2006 Aylesworth filmed roles for two feature movie along with an independent production. In the Kevin Costner movie, Mr. Brooks, Aylesworth portrayed a divorce lawyer, Sheila, who was representing the husband of Demi Moore's character, Detective Tracy Atwood. Departing from her previous type of characters, Aylesworth played the femme fatale Audrey Levine in the Gideon Raff independent thriller, The Killing Floor.

Aylesworth played one of the two lead roles in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). Her character, Kelly O'Brien, an Army pilot and soldier returning home after being deployed overseas, arrives in Gunnison, Colorado the day before the Aliens and Predator invade the town.

In January 2007, Aylesworth had a guest role in two episodes of the ABC comedy, The Knights of Prosperity, where she played the head of Mick Jagger's security company, Simone Cashwell. The Knights attempt to seduce her character in order to obtain the necessary security codes to access Mick Jagger's apartment and later trick Simone in order to get her thumbprint which is also needed to open the door. Soon after she filmed a supporting role in Hannah Davis and David Conolly's The Understudy where she played Police Chief Kinsky. While it has appeared at numerous film festivals, a DVD release date for The Understudy has not been announced.

Roles of 2008

Aylesworth continued her work in independent productions, filming a small part for Steven Kampmann's independent movie, Buzzkill. It is not known when Buzzkill will be released as it has not been shown at any film festivals and the movie's website has not been updated since April, 2008. A month later, Aylesworth was cast in a recurring role on ER, playing hospital chaplain Julia Dupree. Originally, Dupree was to appear in 5 episodes with the purpose of attracting the lecherous attention of Dr. Gates (John Stamos). Her role was extended for two additional episodes, but concluded due to the suspension of filming resulting from the 2007-2008 WGA Strike. In May, 2008 Aylesworth filmed a supporting role in the Steve Morris, independent, comedy The Assistants,, which tells the story of a group of Hollywood assistants who are scheming to have their script turned into a feature film. Aylesworth has often said independent productions like these and past films such as No Deposit, No Return, are her preferred types of film.

The next big role

Since filming The Assistants, Aylesworth has focused on television work starting with a recurring role on the ABC series Lost. The character, Amy, was originally described as "a smart and successful professional woman with a love for the outdoors who is looking for the right man" and would appear in at least four episodes. However, the character would only be in three episodes, and was a married member of the Dharma Initiative, not a woman looking for a husband.

Soon after her role on Lost concluded, it was announced that Aylesworth had joined the cast of Jerry Bruckheimer's new ABC crime drama, The Forgotten. When first made public, The Forgotten was to focus on a group of amateur detectives, The Identity Network, who are led by Linda Manning (Aylesworth), and focused on identifying murder victims after the police were unable to do so. After the official network upfronts, as well as previews and promotional pictures had been released by ABC, it was announced for reasons as yet unknown that ABC had decided to recast the series and replace the two lead characters, portrayed respectively by Rupert Penry-Jones and Aylesworth.

Current life

Aylesworth has resided in New York City since 1993 and when not appearing on screen, she is often involved in Off Broadway productions. Her most recent was the 2006 production of Etan Frankel's The Fearless at the Summer Play Festival and The New Group (naked)'s 2007 production of Heather Lynn MacDonald's Expats.

Reiko Aylesworth appeared in a recurring role in the third season of Damages and on Stargate Universe.

Most recent roles

Aylesworth is most recently known for her portrayal of the recurring character Dr. Malia Waincroft in CBS' Hawaii Five-0 in 2011. She has also appeared in Elementary as Miranda Molinari and in Person of Interest as Agent Vickers in 2012.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993-94	One Life to Live	Rebecca Lewis	TV series
1996	Lifestories: Families in Crisis	Rita	TV episode ("Someone Had to Be Benny")
1997	Childhood's End	Laurie Cannon	Feature film
1997	Law & Order	Tiffany Sherman	TV episode ("We Like Mike")
1998	A Will of Their Own	Annie Jermaine	TV miniseries
1998	You've Got Mail	Thanksgiving Guest	Feature film
1999	Random Hearts	Mary Claire Clark	Feature film
1999	Now and Again	Dr. Taylor	TV episode ("By the Light of the Moon")
1999	Man on the Moon	Mimi	Feature film
2000	No Deposit, No Return	Sue	Feature film
2000	Sherman's March	Becca Coltrane	TV film
2000	The West Wing	Janine	TV episode ("Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics")
2000	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	A.D.A. Erica Alden	TV episodes ("Contact", "Remorse", and "Slaves")
2001	All Souls	Dr. Philomena Cullen	TV series (main cast, with scenes in all episodes except the pilot)
2002	Ed	Kate Harrison	TV episode ("Ends and Means")
2002	The American Embassy	Liz Shoop	TV series (main cast, with scenes in all episodes except the pilot)
2002-06	24	Michelle Dessler	TV series (62 episodes)
2003	The Dead Zone	Natalie Connor	TV episode ("Deja Voodoo")
2003	North of Providence	Little Girl Voice	Short film
2004	The Last Full Measure	Mother	Short film
2004	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Chandra Moore	TV episode ("Viva Las Vegas")
2005	Shooting Vegetarians	Daisy	Feature film (filmed 1999-2000, released on DVD in 2005)
2005	Fathers and Sons	Business Woman	TV film
2005	Crazylove	Letty Mayer	Feature film
2006	3 lbs	Dr. Adrienne Holland	Unaired TV series pilot (series recast)
2006	Magma: Volcanic Disaster	Natalie Sheppard	TV film
2006	24: The Game	Michelle Dessler	Video game voice-over
2006	Conviction	Julie Phelps	TV episode ("Deliverance")
2007	The Knights of Prosperity	Simone Cashwell	TV episodes ("Operation: Seduce Simone" and "Operation: Fighting Shape")
2007	The Killing Floor	Audrey Levine	Feature film
2007	First	Angelina Marveau	Short film
2007	Mr. Brooks	Sheila	Feature film
2007	Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem	Kelly O'Brien	Feature film
2007	ER	Julia Dupree	TV series (recurring in season 14, seven episodes)
2008	The Understudy	Chief Kinsky	Feature film
2008	The Assistants	Cassie Levine	Feature film
2009	Lost	Amy Goodspeed	TV series (recurring role)
2009	The Forgotten	Linda Manning	Unaired TV series pilot (series recast)
2009-10	Stargate Universe	Sharon	TV episodes (1.09, 1.16, and 2.04)
2010	Damages (TV series)	Rachel Tobin	Season 3, Episodes 1, 2, 4, 8, 13
2010	The Good Wife	Nora Vashley	TV episode ("On Tap" 2.08)
2011-14	Hawaii Five-0	Dr. Malia Waincroft	TV series (7 episodes)
2011	Lights Out	Jennifer	TV series (3 episodes)
2012	Buzzkill	Sara	Feature Film
2012	Bad Parents	Laurie	Feature film
2012	Elementary	Miranda Molinari	TV series (Season 1 Episode 06: "Flight Risk")
2012	Person of Interest	Agent Vickers	TV series (Season 2 Episode 09: "C.O.D.")
2013	King & Maxwell	Liz Allen	TV series (Season 1 Episode 04: "King's Ransom")
2013	Drop Dead Diva	June Fraizer	TV series (Season 5 Episode 06: "Fool for Love")
2014	Revolution	Marion Kelly	TV series (4 episodes)

Theatre

Year	Theater/Festival	Location	Production	Role
1988	Springfield Theatre Centre	Springfield, Illinois	West Side Story	Consuelo
1992	Seattle Children's Theatre	Seattle	Invisible Friends	Lucy Baines
1992-93	Intiman Theatre Company	Seattle	Peter Pan	Wendy
1993	Cucaracha Theater	New York City	The Gut Girls
1994	Jewish Theater of New York	New York City	One Hundred Gates
1996	Philadelphia Festival Theater George Street Playhouse	Philadelphia New Brunswick, N.J.	Cheap Sentiment	Meg Van Dyke
1996	Primary Stages Theater	New York City	Missing / Kissing: Missing Marisa / Kissing Christine	Server in "Kissing"
1997	American Place Theatre	New York City	Robbers	Lucinda
2002	McCarter Theatre Center	Princeton, N.J.	Humpty Dumpty	Spoon
2005	Williamstown Theatre Festival	Williamstown, Mass.	Top Girls	Lady Nijo/Win
2006	Summer Play Festival	New York City	The Fearless	Meg
2007	The New Group	New York City	Expats	Karina

[ Source: Wikipedia ]