Paget Brewster AKA Special Agent Emily Prentiss

Paget Brewster has been gradually making a name for herself for a little more than a decade. Currently, she is featured on the hit CBS show “Criminal Minds” as linguistically gifted Special Agent Emily Prentiss.

Brewster was born on March 10, 1969 in Concord, Massachusetts to teachers Galen and Hathaway Brewster. She attended the school where they taught, Middlesex School in Concord, an independent preparatory school closely affiliated with Harvard University that did not become co-ed until 1974.

After graduating, she attended Parsons School of Design in New York City for a year in 1987, before failing out and joining a rock band named Sleeping Pills. Before her television career, she worked as an office temp, waitress, and bartender, the latter in San Francisco. The band moved there in 1995, and she went with them. After it broke up, she attended the Jean Shelton Acting Studio while bartending. A talent agent who was a regular at the bar made a bet with her that if he sent her on one audition and she got the job, he would represent her. The way she presents it is “I gave him martini after martini until I finally got him to represent me.”

She didn’t get it (a show on F/X), but the agent continued to send her out until she landed ‘The Paget Show’ that same year, a short-lived talk show run by Group W that was meant to emulate the then-popular “Ricki Lake” show. It only lasted 65 episodes, but her real break came in 1997 when she landed the role of Kathy, the girl who came between Joey and Chandler on NBC’s “Friends”. Despite the stiff competition for a role on such a popular show, Brewster got it in part by charming Matthew Perry when she strode into the audition saying “I’ve seen the other ladies out there, and I’m obviously your runty alternative, so let’s get this over quickly!”

The “Friends” guest spot landed her several small movie and television roles, until she became a regular on “The Trouble with Normal”, playing Claire Garletti, the only sane character on a show about four paranoid men who come to her therapy group for counseling. It only lasted eleven episodes, and was the beginning of Brewster’s reputation as a “show killer.” Her other short-lived stints include “Andy Richter Controls the Universe”, “Huff”, and “Stacked”. This reputation has hopefully become nullified now that she is in her third season on “Criminal Minds”. She joined the show in 2006, saying “”I was in New Orleans shooting a movie, and I called my agent and said,
‘I’ve been doing my laundry in hotel bathtubs for three months, and I’m lonely. I haven’t seen my family or friends. I want to be on a TV show — I want to be home at five.’ He called a week later and said, ‘Would you meet with Criminal Minds?’”

For several years, she was involved with actor Jay Johnston, whom she met at an LA bar. She is greatly respected by her co-workers, being called “one of the coolest chicks I’ve ever met” by actor David Krumholtz, while former co-star John Cryer said “I don’t think Paget has any comprehension of the full extent of her fabulosity.”

In 2006, she starred opposite Rob Lowe in the TV movie “A Perfect Day” on TNT, garnering such praise from her co-star as “she is amazing. She was sort of my handpicked choice, because I had worked with her briefly years ago and just adored her. She’s a talented actress, and I actually think she makes this movie. She’s unbelievable in it.”

Recently renewed for a fourth season, “Criminal Minds” is doing well, and Brewster will be on it for the foreseeable future. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Related posts:

1. ‘Criminal Minds’ Think Alike for CBS Spinoff
2. Criminal Minds: Preview of Episode 5.10 “The Slave of Duty”
3. Criminal Minds – 5.10 promo pictures
4. Rossdale to guest on ‘Criminal Minds’

Tags: acting studio, criminal minds, paget brewster, television career, television roles

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Paget Brewster AKA Special Agent Emily Prentiss”

1. Paget Brewster Says:
   January 13th, 2009 at 6:55 am

   [...] Criminal Minds ~ Criminal Minds Fan Site, Forums, News, Episodes … (criminalminds.net) – January 01, 2009Paget Brewster has been gradually making a name for herself for a little more than a decade. [...]

2. gooTrends.com » Blog Archive » Paget Brewster Says:
   January 13th, 2009 at 4:50 pm

   [...] Criminal Minds ~ Criminal Minds Fan Site, Forums, News, Episodes … (criminalminds.net) – January 01, 2009Paget Brewster has been gradually making a name for herself for a little more than a decade. [...]