Kirsten Simone Vangsness (born July 7, 1972) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her portrayal of

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-ge ...

Criminal Minds ''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was revived in 2022. It ...

''. She portrayed the same character on the spin-off series '' Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior'', '' Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders'', and ''Criminal Minds: Evolution''; 2022 main cast.

Early life

Vangsness was born in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, daughter of Errol Leroy Vangsness, of

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

descent, and wife Barbara Mary (née Marconi), of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

descent. She was raised in Porterville, California, and later moved to Cerritos, California. She graduated from

Cerritos High School Cerritos High School, also called CHS, is a comprehensive, four-year public high school located in Cerritos, California, serving grades 9-12. It is part of the ABC Unified School District. As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrol ...

in June 1990 and attended

Cypress College Cypress College is a public community college in Cypress, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and belongs to the North Orange County Community College District. It offers a variety of general education (55 associ ...

in Cypress, California. She later graduated from

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

in 1996.

Career

Acting

Vangsness became involved in acting as a child to help overcome shyness and got her first big break in the theatre, where she won several awards, including the 15 Minutes of Female Best Actress Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Emerging Comic Actress, and the Golden Betty Award.

Writing

Vangsness' work has been published in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. Since 2014, Vangsness has co-written four episodes of ''Criminal Minds''. In 2014 she co-wrote "Nelson's Sparrow" with executive producer,

Erica Messer Erica Messer is an American television writer, producer, and story editor. She has written episodes of television series such as ''Alias'', ''The O.C.'', ''Charmed'', and ''Criminal Minds''. She has also co-produced two television shows: ''Cha ...

. In 2015 she co-wrote "A Beautiful Disaster" once again with Messer and in 2016 she co-wrote "Spencer" with Messer. The ''Criminal Minds'' series finale was also co-written by Vangsness and Messer.

Personal life

In a 2011 interview, Vangsness has described herself as "as queer as a purple unicorn singing Madonna". She was in a seven-year relationship with editor Melanie Goldstein, to whom she was engaged, until 2013.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vangsness, Kirsten Living people 1972 births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses American television actresses American people of Norwegian descent American people of Italian descent LGBT people from California People from Cerritos, California Queer women American queer actresses Queer writers