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NY Post
Decider
2 Apr 2024


NextImg:Felicity Huffman lands first major TV role since going to prison

Former Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman has secured her first major television role since completing prison time for the college admissions scandal. The actress is now poised to take on a new role in Criminal Minds: Evolution, Paramount+‘s reboot of the long-running crime drama.

Huffman is set to play Dr. Jill Gideon, ex-wife of Mandy Patinkin‘s character, Jason Gideon, an audience favorite.

Per Variety, Dr. Jill Gideon is “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 Mandy Patinkin), but soon realizes her specific skill set could help them uncover another clue to the elusive Gold Star mystery.”

Huffman will join the rest of the original cast who have returned for the series reboot, including Paget Brewster, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez, as well as Evolution Season 1 stars Zach Gilford and Ryan-James Hatanaka.

Photo: Leon Bennett

This marks her first major television role since she was convicted of fraud as part of the college admissions scandal. Huffman was one of dozens of parents who were arrested in 2019 for forging their children’s records to help them get into top-ranking colleges.

She paid $15,000 to falsify her daughter’s SAT scores. After she was convicted, Huffman served 11 days in prison and completed community service. She also paid a $30,000 fine after she pleaded guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

This new role comes just weeks after she opened up about how difficult it has to become to land new roles since the scandal.

“I did a pilot for ABC recently that didn’t get picked up. It’s been hard,” she recently told The Guardian. “Sort of like your old life died and you died with it. I’m lucky enough to have a family and love and means, so I had a place to land.”

Though the actress earned an Emmy for her turn on Desperate Housewives, the opportunities largely dried up since 2019 except for a guest appearance in an episode of The Good Doctor in 2023.

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 is currently in production.