Kirsten Vangsness

Kirsten Simone Vangsness is a television and stage actress who has appeared in the CBS drama series Criminal Minds and in Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.

She was born on July 7, 1972 in Pasadena, CA. Vangsness graduated from Cerritos High School in Cerritos, California in June 1990. Upon graduation, she had day jobs as a substitute teacher, child counselor, restaurant hostess, personal assistant, grant writer and murder mystery dinner theater actress before landing her first paid acting job in a Diet Dr. Pepper commercial. http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/kirsten-vangsness/250922

Vangsness then moved on to the theater in Los Angeles, where she won the 15 Minutes of Female Best Actress Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Emerging Comic Actress and the Golden Betty Award. In addition to her role on Criminal Minds in 2010, Vangsness acted in the Bill Robens stage play Kill Me, Deadly.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/bio

Vangsness has spent most of her career as a theater actress in West Coast productions of original plays such as A Mulholland Christmas Carol, which won an LA Weekly Award, the Book of Liz, Fan Maroo, Perfuct and Steaming City. She also landed a starring role in the West Coast premiere of Neil LaBute's Fat Pig at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/bio

Vangsness has had short plays appear in Los Angeles Times Magazine as well as in theaters throughout Los Angeles. Through her acting and writing, she has become a member of Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood, California. Her film and television credits include Phil of the Future, the A-List, the independent film Shooting Blanks and In My Sleep. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536

• 2011: Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (TV series) (filming)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2011: The Chicago 8 (completed)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2005-2010: Criminal Minds (TV series)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2010: Pretty (TV movie)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2009: In My Sleephttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2009: Scream of the Bikinihttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2008: Shemar Moore: Criminal Minds' Wild Ride (video short)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2008: Profile: Rossi/Mantegna (video short)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2008: From Script to Screen: True Night (video short)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2008: Criminal Minds Season 3: Killer Roles (video short)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2008: The Criminal Element: The Making of 'Criminal Minds, Season 3 (video short)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2008: Tranny McGuyver (short)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2006: A-Listhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2004: LAX (TV series)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 2004: Phil of the Future (TV series) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/
• 1998: Sometimes Santa's Gotta Get Whacked (short) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1494536/

""I love music, I collect songs. I have a whole cover collection and constantly when people don't even ask me, like Matthew (her co-star), he's one of my CD victims, I'm constantly making him CD's - he doesn't ask me for them, I just come in and tell him these are the best make artists of 1994. I think I'd be a music supervisor, like the people who make stuff for movie soundtracks."—Kirsten Vangsness in an interview with About.Com on what she would be doing instead of acting.http://tvdramas.about.com/od/criminalminds/a/kirvangsnessint.htm

"She’s shooting two episodes, I believe and you know, it sucks when they fire your friends. I don’t know who made that decision, but I know that us as a family – the family that Ed Bernero made of us – are crushed and it’s awful."—Kirsten Vangsness on the firing of A.J. Cook in an interview with Screen Rant magazinehttp://screenrant.com/criminal-minds-season-6kirsten-vangsness-aj-cook-firing-aco-71324/