Who Plays Joan on TV’s ‘Covert Affairs?’

Celebrity Q&A, Featured Article
on July 8, 2013
Covert Affairs - Season 3
Kari Matchett in "Covert Affairs"
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I just binge-watched “Covert Affairs” to get caught up for the new season. What can you tell me about the actress who plays Joan, Annie’s CIA boss?
—Terrance Rabon, Mesa, Ariz.

Kari Matchett, 43, stars as Joan Campbell, head of the CIA’s Domestic Protection Division on “Covert Affairs.”

The native of Spalding, Saskatchewan, Canada, first got noticed when she was cast as Dr. Mariel Underlay on the short-lived sci-fi series “Invasion.” She followed that up by starring in season six of “24,” and then landed a recurring role on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” which only aired for one season.

Next up for Matchett was TNT’s “Heartland” before she moved on to “ER” in the recurring role as Dr. Skye Wexler, which she followed up with the TV version of “Crash,” and then “Leverage.”

Which makes “Covert Affairs,” now in its fourth season, the longest series role she has had in TV to date. She says, “I’ve done a number of television series, but they’ve never gone for more than two seasons. So, to be honest, I didn’t think long term at all [when I read this script]. I just went, ‘That looks like fun for a pilot, or maybe one season.’ I really didn’t think beyond that. But, what did attract me was the strength of the character, and being a woman of that caliber and level of power in the CIA.”

Matchett’s other television credits include “Criminal Minds,” “The Cleaner,” “Ugly Betty,” “The Philanthropist,” and “Shark,” and the TV movies “Meteor Storm,” “The National Tree” and “The Horses of McBride.”

On the big screen, Matchett starred in “Tree of Life,” “The Riverbank,” “Angel Eyes” and
“Cypher.”

The actress attended Lethbridge Collegiate Institute in Alberta, Canada, after which she studied at the National Theatre School in Montreal and the Moscow Theatre School.

When not shooting “Covert Affairs,” which films in Toronto, Matchett lives in Los Angeles.