Kirsten Vangsness

Kirsten Vangsness is an American actress and writer, raised in the small Northern California town of Porterville and a 1996 graduate of Cal State Fullerton, known for playing the cheerful, tech-savvy Penelope Garcia on Criminal Minds (2005) and its spinoff Criminal Minds: Evolution (2022). She has identified as queer and bisexual in interviews, and has been openly LGBTQ+ throughout her run on one of the longest-running crime procedurals in US television history. Beyond acting, Vangsness has co-written five episodes of Criminal Minds alongside showrunner Erica Messer, including the series finale, and built an earlier career in theatre, where she won several awards including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Emerging Comic Actress. She has spoken about representation for queer women in mainstream network drama.