TV News: Fairuza Balk joins ‘Ray Donovan’, Anna Gunn spins off ‘Criminal Minds’ and more

Casting – Current/Returning Shows

Ray Donovan. Showtime’s Liev Schreiber drama about an L.A. fixer has added Fairuza Balk (Almost Famous), Shree Crooks (Extant) and Jason Butler Haner (Scandal) to its 3rd season cast. Balk will play a prostitute/mother who befriends Ray’s father (Jon Voight) while Crooks will play her daughter. Haner will play the right hand man of newly added Ian McShane. (Deadline, THR)

Criminal MindsAnna Gunn (Breaking Bad) has been cast opposite Gary Sinise in the spinoff of CBS’s crime drama which will be planted in an episode later this season. “Gunn will play Ally Lambert, an international law expert and talented linguist. She’s smart, capable and an indispensable part of the team that makes sure bad guys worldwide don’t slip through the murky waters of international law.” (Deadline)

Extant. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Watchmen) will join CBS’ Halle Berry sci-fi drama as a “roguish” bounty hunter when the show returns this summer. (TVLine)

Mike & Molly. Kathy Bates will return as photographer Kay McKinnon in an upcoming episode of the CBS sitcom starring Melissa McCarthy. (THR)

Casting – Upcoming Shows

Vice Principals. Busy Phillips (Cougar Town, Freaks and Geeks) has been added to the cast of Danny McBride and Jody Hill’s (East Bound and Down) upcoming HBO comedy about the inner workings of a high school. She’ll play the ex-wife of McBride’s vice principal Neal Gamby. (Deadline)

A.K.A. Jessica Jones. Rachael Taylor (Grey’s Anatomy) has joined the growing cast of the Marvel/Netflix project starring Krysten Ritter (The B— in Apt. 23) as a troubled former super hero who opens her own detective agency and David Tenant (Doctor Who) as the villain Zebediah Killgrave. Taylor will play Jessica Jones’ best friend. (THR)

Renewals/Cancellations

Ground Floor. Though TBS says it’s not official, TVLine reports that their sitcom starring Skylar Astin and Briga Heelan will not be renewed for a third season prompting a weary TV nation to be jolted awake in the dead of night to ask “What’s Ground Floor?”

Published by Craig Kennedy

Craig Kennedy is looking for the best on screens small and large. Follow him on Twitter (@LivingInCinema), on tvtag, on Facebook and listen to him along with Sasha and Ryan on the Oscar Podcast.