CHARACTERS

AARON HOTCHNER
(seasons 1-12)

Hotch is a former prosecutor and was originally assigned to the FBI Field Office in Seattle. He is one of the most experienced agents in the BAU. He struggles to balance the demands of his job with his family life, but his wife Haley Brooks (Meredith Monroe) divorces him in season three.

SPENCER REID, PH.D.
(seasons 1-present)

Reid is a genius who graduated from Las Vegas High School at age 12 and holds Ph.D.s in mathematics, chemistry, and engineering as well as Bachelor of Arts degrees in psychology and sociology and, as of season four, is working on a B.A. in philosophy. It has been revealed that he has an IQ of 187, can read a dizzying 20,000 words per minute, and has an eidetic memory.

JENNIFER "JJ" JAREAU
(seasons 1–5, 7–present)

J.J. served as the Communications Liaison on the team to local police agencies in seasons one through five. She dates and marries William LaMontagne (Josh Stewart), a New Orleans Police Department Detective. They have two sons, Henry LaMontagne (Mekhai Andersen) and Michael LaMontagne (Phoenix Sky Andersen). Both boys are played by A.J. Cook's real life sons.

PENELOPE GARCIA
(seasons 1–present)

Garcia joined the BAU after bringing attention to herself by illegally accessing some of their equipment; she is offered a job in lieu of a jail sentence. She submitted her resume to Hotch on pink stationery. She usually supports the team from her computer lab at Quantico but occasionally joins them on location when her skills can be used in the field.

JASON GIDEON
(seasons 1–3)

Gideon is widely known as the BAU's best profiler. After a series of emotionally troubling cases and the murder of his friend Sarah by fugitive serial killer Frank Breitkopf (Keith Carradine), he begins to feel burned out. The last straw occurs when Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner is suspended for two weeks by the team's boss—an action for which Jason feels responsible.

ELLE GREENAWAY
(seasons 1–2)

Greenaway is assigned to the FBI field office in Seattle and assigned to the BAU as an expert in sexual offense crimes. Elle suffers extreme emotional trauma after being shot by an unsub in the season one finale ("The Fisher King (Part 1)"). In the season two premiere ("The Fisher King (Part 2)"), Elle survives and returns to duty sooner than SSA Jason Gideon and Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner would like.

DEREK MORGAN
(seasons 1–11)

Morgan is a confident, assertive, and often hot-tempered character. After a football injury left him unable to play, he joined the Chicago Police Department's bomb squad and later joined the FBI and the BAU. He has an emotionally intimate, but platonic, relationship with Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia; the two have a unique shorthand and banter.

EMILY PRENTISS
(seasons 2–7, 12–present)

Prentiss is the daughter of Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss (Kate Jackson). After SSA Elle Greenaway leaves the BAU, Assistant Director Strauss approves Emily to join the BAU. The plan was for Emily to report any problems within the BAU but Emily remained loyal to the team and refused to report any problems, going as far as threatening resignation.

DAVID ROSSI
(seasons 3–present)

Rossi is a highly experienced profiler who once worked the BAU in its origins, then took early retirement in 1997 to write books and go on lecture tours about criminal analysis, until volunteering to return shortly after SSA Jason Gideon's departure in 2007. He has been married three times and is quite wealthy because of his successful writing career.