What Happened To The Cast Of The Mentalist

Raid the files and prepare yourself for some mind games — TVLine is tracking down the former agents of the California Bureau of Investigation. Or, at least, the actors who played them on “The Mentalist.”

The unconventional CBS procedural has been off the air for over ten years now, with fans left only to reminisce fondly about its uniquely arresting blend of case-of-the-week thrills and overarching mysteries. Certainly, one could drift to the likes of “Psych” or “Lie to Me,” but no series can capture the same magic without Patrick Jane and his co-workers at the CBI and FBI.

The cast has scattered to various corners of the entertainment world since the series finale. Many of them have kept very busy, appearing in everything from newer procedurals to Academy Award-nominated films. Others have apparently been so careful about their next roles that they’re harder to find than Red John. Fortunately, we’ve opened our own investigation into what happened to the cast of “The Mentalist.”

Though he wasn’t exactly a main cast member on “The Mentalist,” we would be remiss if we didn’t catch up with John Troy Donovan, who appeared in over 60 episodes of the series as a character named Ron. Recognizable in the background of the California Bureau of Investigation by his distinctive goatee, Ron strangely became something of a fan favorite character. Many viewers still discuss him in forums online, with some new fans (still working through the series for the first time) half-seriously theorizing that he might be the “Red John Killer.”

Donovan had only been working as an extra when he was cast on “The Mentalist” in 2009 (appearing in an episode of “NCIS” and the 2007 Disney film “Enchanted”). He has not acted since the series ended in 2015. The actor-slash-musician (a guitarist for the band Flogging Molly) maintained a sporadic and relatively sparse presence on social media until 2020. Beyond that, Donovan has vanished from the public eye.

Gregory Itzin appeared throughout the first two seasons of “The Mentalist.” He played Virgil Minelli, the CBI Director and Special Agent in Charge. The character retired early in Season 2 and was subsequently replaced by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s Madeleine Hightower. Itzin last appeared on the series in the Season 5 episode “Red Dawn.”

When “The Mentalist” first began, Itzin was still playing Charles Logan on the hit Fox political thriller “24” (pictured above). He continued to play the character through the show’s eighth season in 2010, during which he was nominated for his second Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (he was nominated for the same character in 2006). That same year he joined the cast of the USA Network spy drama “Covert Affairs,” on which he recurred as former National Clandestine Service Director Henry Wilcox (also the father of Sendhil Ramamurthy’s Jai Wilcox). Other notable television credits include Senator Dwyer on HBO’s “Big Love” and Mayor Bowron on TNT’s “Mob City.” On film, he had minor roles in “The Ides of March” (as Democratic National Committee Chair Jack Stearns) and “Lincoln” (as U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Archibald Campbell).

In 2022, Itzin died while undergoing emergency surgery for an undisclosed condition. He was 74 years old.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor recurred throughout Seasons 2 and 3 of “The Mentalist” as Madeleine Hightower, the Special Agent in Charge after Virgil Minelli stepped down. She last appeared on the series in the Season 6 episode “Red Listed” in 2013.

Ellis-Taylor has managed to work consistently in both film and television. After her initial departure, she began recurring on Season 4 of “NCIS: Los Angeles” as Michelle, the wife of LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna. She appeared infrequently throughout the following four seasons. In 2015, she was cast as one of the main characters in the ABC crime thriller “Quantico,” playing Miranda Shaw in the first two seasons. She then joined the recurring cast of “Designated Survivor” for its second season in 2018, before taking on the role of Sharonne Salaam (the mother of the wrongfully accused New York teenager Yusef Salaam) in the Netflix miniseries “When They See Us.” Most recently, she’s been in the main casts of the legal drama “61st Street” and the FX western revival “Justified: City Primeval.”

At the cinema, Ellis-Taylor has had memorable roles in lauded dramas like “The Help,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” the 2023 musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” and “Nickel Boys.” In 2021, she played tennis coach Oracene “Brandy” Price in the Will Smith-led biopic “King Richard” (pictured above). Her work earned her a nomination for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress at the 94th Academy Awards. In 2025, she was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her starring role in Tina Mabry’s Hulu drama “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat.”

Ellis-Taylor has been announced as part of the main cast of the currently upcoming Apple TV series “Lucky.” Created by Jonathan Tropper (“Banshee,” “Warrior”), it also stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Annette Bening, and Timothy Olyphant.

As CBI Director Gale Bertram, Michael Gaston was one of the most memorable antagonists on “The Mentalist.” He joined the cast during the show’s third season and continued to recur throughout the following three seasons. During this period, he also had a prominent role as Detective Mike Costello on the CBS (later A&E) police procedural “Unforgettable.”

Through the 2010s, Gaston recurred on ABC’s military drama “Last Resort,” the AMC period thriller “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” “The Good Wife,” “The Leftovers,” “Chicago P.D.,” “Murder in the First,” “Designated Survivor,” “Madam Secretary,” “Power,” “Jack Ryan,” and “Blindspot.” His most notable role during this time was on the dystopian thriller “The Man in the High Castle.” Based on Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name, the Amazon Prime Video series depicted a dark, alternate universe in which Germany and Japan won World War II. Gaston played Mark Sampson, a supporting character who is friends with Rupert Evans’ rebellious Frank Frink. Most recently, he played members of law enforcement on both “Daredevil: Born Again” (pictured above) and the Netflix crime drama “The Waterfront.”

Despite being so busy on TV, Gaston still found time to play roles in “Bridge of Spies” and “First Reformed.” He is slated to appear in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming sci-fi thriller “Disclosure Day.”

Josie Loren was a late but significant addition to the main cast of “The Mentalist.” She exclusively appeared in Season 7, playing the tragically ill-fated rookie FBI agent Michelle Vega. Aside from the ABC Family teen sports drama “Make It or Break It,” Loren had largely guest-starred on single episodes of television shows, particularly children’s sitcoms like “Hannah Montana” and “Drake and Josh.”

“The Mentalist” was the actor’s first and final major role, at least as of writing. Since guest-starring on an episode of “Young and Hungry” in 2015, she had not taken roles in any films or television shows. It is likely she chose to retire from the entertainment industry around this time.

Instead, Loren decided to pursue a law degree at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, graduating in 2019. She currently works as a corporate attorney and is a senior associate at a law firm in LA. She changed her name to Josie Leinart after marrying former NFL quarterback Matt Leinart in 2018.

Similarly to Josie Loren, Emily Swallow made quite an impact despite only appearing on one season of “The Mentalist.” She joined the cast in Season 6 as FBI Special Agent Kim Fischer.

After a minor recurring role on “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce,” Swallow was cast as the primordial entity known as The Darkness on the hit CW fantasy series “Supernatural.” She appeared in several episodes of the show’s 11th season in 2015 and returned for two episodes in its final season in 2020. Swallow also played minor antagonist Lisa Cameron on “How to Get Away with Murder,” psychologist Natalie Pierce on CBS’ “SEAL Team,” and voiced Lisa Ţepeş, the dead wife of Dracula himself (Graham McTavish) on Netflix’s animated “Castlevania” series.

In 2019, Swallow had a supporting role in the first season of the Disney+ “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian.” She played The Armorer (pictured above). Despite initial plans to kill her off, the series’ writers decided to retain the character as part of the supporting ensemble. Swallow and The Armorer returned for the third season, as well as the spin-off series “The Book of Boba Fett.”

Eagle-eyed gamers might recognize Swallow from the massively popular 2020 video game “The Last of Us Part II,” in which she had a minor role as the Seraphite Emily. They might’ve also heard her voice in the “PAC-MAN” episode of the Amazon Prime Video anthology series “Secret Level.”

Following minor roles like Zart in “The Maze Runner” and Colin Milkovich in “Shameless,” Joe Adler joined the main cast of “The Mentalist” in Season 6 as Jason Wylie. Adler played the tech-savvy FBI agent for the last two seasons of the show’s run.

His next major TV role came in 2015, the same year “The Mentalist” ended. He joined the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” as a recurring guest star in Season 11, then went on to appear frequently throughout Season 12. He played Dr. Isaac Cross, a surgical intern who was assigned to Jerrika Hinton’s Stephanie Edwards. His last appearances on the series were in its 13th season.

Adler subsequently guest-starred on three episodes of the revived “Twin Peaks” on Showtime, then accepted a role in the main cast of the short-lived USA Network period drama “Damnation.” It was canceled after a single season. His most recent roles have been one-off guest-starring appearances on “American Crime Story” (“The Assassination of Gianni Versace”), “The Good Doctor,” “The Rookie,” and “CSI: Vegas.” In 2022, he had a minor role in the Zac Efron-led war dramedy “The Greatest Beer Run Ever.”

Rockmond Dunbar was yet another Season 6 addition to the main cast of “The Mentalist,” having recently played Sheriff Eli Roosevelt on the popular FX crime thriller “Sons of Anarchy.” On the former series, he played FBI Agent Dennis Abbott.

After the series ended, Dunbar was cast on the Hulu drama “The Path,” which starred Aaron Paul as a New Age spiritualist wrestling with his faith. Dunbar once again played an FBI agent, who heads an investigation into the movement’s unsettling practices. He left the series after its second season in 2017. That same year, in addition to recurring on the third season of the CBS series “Scorpion,” the actor reprised his role as Fox River prisoner Benjamin “C-Note” Franklin on the one-season revival of the beloved Fox crime drama “Prison Break.”

The following year, Dunbar landed a role in the main cast of Fox’s “9-1-1.” In the procedural drama (co-created prolific TV producer Ryan Murphy), he played Michael Grant (pictured above), the ex-husband of Angela Bassett’s Athena Grant who comes out as gay at the start of the series. He left in 2021 after he was allegedly denied a religious and medical exemption from taking the COVID-19 vaccine. (Though this made for one of the most shocking TV departures of the year, the character’s sudden departure didn’t rank too highly on our rundown of every “9-1-1” cast exit.) Dunbar later sued Fox over the dispute and lost.

In 2024, he had a minor role in the Peacock miniseries “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist.” He most recently appeared in the 2025 Tyler Perry psychological thriller “Straw.”

Amanda Righetti was one of the original main cast members of “The Mentalist.” She played CBI Special Agent Grace Van Pelt for the first six seasons, returning afterward only for the series finale.

After playing a minor character in “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.” in 2014, Righetti was offered a role in the USA Network sci-fi series “Colony.” The show follows the aftermath of a successful alien invasion in Los Angeles. Righetti played Maddie Kenner, the younger sister of Sarah Wayne Callies’ Katie Bowman. She left the series after its second season, and it was ultimately cancelled after its third. Righetti had a few roles in lesser-known projects after her exit, most notably playing the mother of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the eponymous 2024 biopic starring Dennis Quaid.

That same year, it was announced that the actor had joined the main cast of Amazon Prime Video’s “Scarpetta,” a long-awaited adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s series of crime novels. The series stars Nicole Kidman as Kay Scarpetta, with Jamie Lee Curtis playing her older sister Dorothy. Righetti will play a younger version of the latter character.

Owain Yeoman left “The Mentalist” at the end of Season 6 along with Amanda Righetti, having played CBI Agent Wayne Rigsby since the debut season. (Prior to his casting, he had only had main roles in two ill-fated TV series — one of which was the little-known Bradley Cooper Anthony Bourdain sitcom “Kitchen Confidential.”) He too returned for the series finale.

Yeoman had notable roles on “Extant” and “Supergirl” immediately after his exit. Before long, he landed another major television role, joining the cast of “Turn: Washington’s Spies” in its second season as the infamous historical traitor Benedict Arnold. He stayed with the AMC series through its final three seasons. A few years after it ended, Yeoman was cast in the ABC thriller “Emergence,” an aspiring mystery-box thriller that was cancelled after just one season despite a near-unanimously positive critical reception. The main cast also included “Fargo” alum Allison Tolman, “Scrubs” star Donald Faison, and Clancy Brown.

In recent years, Yeoman has guest-starred on episodes of “True Lies,” “CSI: Vegas,” “Bosch: Legacy,” and “Tracker.” His career post-“The Mentalist” has also included minor roles in a handful of popular films like “American Sniper” and “The Belko Experiment.”

Tim Kang was one of only three main cast members on “The Mentalist” to stay with the series for all seven seasons. His character, Kimball Cho, was an agent at both the CBI and the FBI.

In 2018, following guest-starring appearances on “The Vampire Diaries,” “Criminal Minds,” “Chicago Justice,” and “American Horror Story: Cult,” Kang was cast on the 2018 CBS reboot of “Magnum P.I.” He played Detective Gordon Katsumoto of the Honolulu Police Department (pictured above), with whom Jay Hernandez’s Thomas Magnum collaborates to solve cases. The series aired for four seasons on CBS before it moved to NBC for its fifth season. The latter network ultimately opted to cancel the series.

While acting on “Magnum P.I.,” Kang also appeared in minor roles on “Lethal Weapon” and “Madam Secretary,” and recurred on the Freeform Marvel drama “Cloak and Dagger.” He is slated to star in an upcoming drama film titled “Bash Town.”

During its final season, Robin Tunney earned her first People’s Choice Award nomination for playing Teresa Lisbon on “The Mentalist.” She starred on the series as the primary professional (and, ultimately, romantic) partner of the titular investigator.

Undoubtedly kept busy throughout the series’ run, she only appeared in a few small film roles during that time. Once it ended, Tunney took on larger roles. She starred opposite Nicolas Cage in the 2018 thriller “Looking Glass,” the duo playing a grieving couple attempting to rebuild their life by taking over a shady desert motel. That same year, she appeared in the ensemble horror film “Monster Party.”

After guest-starring on the Netflix comedies “Love” and “Insatiable,” Tunney found her next leading television role on “The Fix” (pictured above). Premiering in 2019, the ABC legal drama starred Tunney as a disgraced prosecutor intent on redeeming herself by finally putting the high-profile suspect who haunts her career (a celebrity accused of murder, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) behind bars. The series drew mixed reviews and was cancelled after one season.

Tunney has so far appeared in only a handful of projects since — the Netflix film “Horse Girl” and the Apple TV series “Dear Edward.” Her most recent film, “By Design” (a drama that stars Juliette Lewis as a woman whose soul inhabits a chair), was released in early 2026.

Finally, our “investigation” brings us to Simon Baker, the Emmy-nominated actor behind the effortlessly charming and unexpectedly complex Patrick Jane — “The Mentalist” himself. Baker had previously had prominent roles on the Australian soap opera “E Street” and the CBS drama “The Guardian,” as well as a supporting role in the beloved Meryl Streep dramedy “The Devil Wears Prada.” Baker was also part of the ensemble cast of the 2011 drama “Margin Call.”

In 2017, Baker (who had previously directed episodes of “The Mentalist”) made his feature film directorial debut with the surfing drama “Breath.” The film was reviewed positively by critics and grossed $3.2 million. He has continued to star in Australian-produced films, occasionally serving as an executive producer on movies like “High Ground” and “Limbo.” On TV, Baker has had roles in the Netflix coming-of-age miniseries “Boy Swallows Universe” and the Amazon Prime Video drama “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” (pictured above).

Like Amanda Righetti, Baker is set to return to the crime procedural drama in the upcoming series “Scarpetta.” He’ll be playing the role of FBI criminal profiler Benton Wesley. Hopefully, if it turns out to be a hit, it’ll be a near-perfect follow-up series for fans of “The Mentalist.”