From previous roles to personal lives, here’s what to know about the cast of the hit cop drama.

See The Rookie cast then and now, from season 1 vets to newer fan-favorites

From previous roles to personal lives, here's what to know about the cast of the hit cop drama.

By Tanya Melendez

Tanya Melendez

Tanya Melendez is a freelance writer at **. She joined EW in 2023.

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January 6, 2026 6:39 p.m. ET

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Richard T. Jones, Alyssa Diaz, Nathan Fillion, Eric Winter, Melissa O'Neil, and Titus Makin Jr. on 'The Rookie'. Credit:

ABC/Andrew Eccles

Sing along with us: Is that a baton in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

For seven seasons (and counting), fans of ABC’s *The Rookie* have watched the adventures of later-in-life cop John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), from his early days as the oldest trainee in the LAPD to becoming an experienced member of the force.

The show has grown with Nolan, along with a large ensemble cast that does a lot more than provide backup. With the show’s eighth season underway, here’s a look at *The Rookie’s* cast, then and now.

Nathan Fillion (Officer John Nolan)

Nathan Fillion in 'The Rookie' pilot; Fillion at the 2024 Disney Upfront.

ABC/Tony Rivetti; Taylor Hill/WireImage

Our titular rookie is one of many heroes played by pop culture fave Nathan Fillion.

Nolan’s come a long way in just seven years, rising the LAPD ranks four times. That doesn’t mean the road was easy — he’s been targeted by an obsessed serial killer, framed by a dirty cop, and wounded during a border town shootout with a heavily armed gang. Despite joining the force at age 40, he manages to keep up with his fellow officers and still have enough leftover energy for Bailey (Jenna Dewan), whom he met in season 3 and married three seasons later.

Fillion broke out alongside Ryan Reynolds on *Two Guys and a Girl* (RIP “*and a Pizza Place*”) and had an early bit part in *Saving Private Ryan *(1998). With his starring role in *Firefly *(2002–2003), he found a loyal following, while appearances in *Buffy the Vampire Slayer *(2003) and *Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog *(2008) cemented him as a genre icon. Then came his massive ABC hit, *Castle* (2009–2016).

Signing on to *The Rookie* was an easy yes for the actor. Not only would he be reuniting with *Castle* executive producer Alexi Hawley, but he believed the project was well timed.

“This is a cultural shift we’re seeing, where people are starting their lives over halfway through. Not everybody can relate to being cops, right? Just cops,” Fillion told * *in 2018. “But people can certainly relate to a do-over.”

The Edmonton native also has an ongoing role in James Gunn’s DC universe as the mop-topped Lantern Corps crimefighter Guy Gardner. He appeared in Gunn’s *Superman *(2025) and will be back for HBO’s *Lanterns*.

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Eric Winter (Sgt. Tim Bradford)

Eric Winter in season 1 of 'The Rookie'; Winter at the 2025 Disney Upfront.

ABC/Tony Rivetti; John Nacion/WireImage

No one takes training rookies more seriously than Tim, the-hard-as-nails former Marine who loves testing the new officers as much as he loves the Dodgers. Underneath that tough exterior, though, he's a true romantic.

From trying to help his troubled ex-wife Isabel (Mircea Monroe) to breaking up with Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) because he believes she’s better off without him, Tim is our sweetly stubborn hero with a tragic past. He just needs a little more therapy… but maybe not from a therapist working with an evil lawyer to take down the LAPD.

Veteran actor Eric Winter is clear-eyed about why his character is the way that he is, as he detailed to Collider in 2025: “If he’s tough on you, you’re going to be tough on the job in the best way possible… Tim just feels like, ‘If you can handle it from me, you can handle it from anybody, and you'll be the best you can be out on the street, and you'll be able to think fast.’”

It’s possible Winter refined Tim’s steely gaze during his years as a model and soap opera star, with over 400 episodes of *Days of Our Lives *(2002–2005) under his belt. Elsewhere, Winter had guest stints on *Brothers & Sisters *(2007–2008)* *and* The Mentalist *(2010–2012) before playing Dash Gardiner on Lifetime’s late, lamented *Witches of East End *(2013–2014).

Since joining *The Rookie*, he’s booked one particularly special outside role: a guest spot on Fox’s *Fantasy Island* (2021) reboot, acting alongside his wife, Roselyn Sanchez. Together, they have two children and host the podcast *He Said, Ella Dijo*.

Mekia Cox (Det. Nyla Harper)

Mekia Cox in season 2's 'Clean Cut'; Cox at the 'Elio' premiere in 2025.

Rick Rowell/ABC via Getty; Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

After spending four years undercover in the L.A. drug scene, Detective Harper took on her toughest assignment yet: keeping John Nolan out of trouble as his training officer. Her re-integration wasn’t entirely smooth, but once she’s able to regain shared custody of her daughter and root out a dirty cop, her place on the team is secure.

Nyla is now partnered on the force with Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) and in her personal life with community activist husband James. Most impressive? Solving a murder at her new neighbor’s house, going into labor, and still managing to take down the bad guy* while literally giving birth*.

“I like the female power that’s happening on the show,” Cox told EW when she joined the show in 2019. “Lopez sees Harper, and all of a sudden, she falls in love with this character. Because she’s like, oh she’s this badass that’s coming in and shaking things up.”

Cox is a trained musical theater and dance veteran, including touring with Michael Jackson. Once she turned to acting full-time, she appeared on Fox’s *90210* reboot (2009) and the crime drama *Secrets and Lies *(2016) before being cast as Princess Tiana on *Once Upon a Time *(2017–2018). She also maintains a recurring role on *Chicago Med *(2016–present).

The St. Croix native has been married to basketball analyst Britt Leach since 2018. They have two children.

Alyssa Diaz (Det. Angela Lopez)

Alyssa Diaz's in the show's pilot episode; Diaz at the Disney Upfront in 2025.

ABC/Tony Rivetti; John Nacion/WireImage

After successfully training rookie Jackson West, Angela sets her sights on becoming a detective while trying to ignore her obvious chemistry with defense attorney Wesley Evers (Shawn Ashmore). Despite their antagonistic start, the pair can’t help falling for each other and are now happily married with two children.

Lopez’s stubbornness is her biggest asset, and it helped her survive being kidnapped by drug queenpin La Fiera (Camille Guaty) and dealing with her three knucklehead brothers.

Alyssa Diaz’s real-life pregnancy became a large part of her character’s season 3 storyline.

“It really does add a level of reality to her experience to finally get this job that she wanted so much, but to be pregnant going into it and knowing the consequences that could come if people knew about it,” Hawley told EW in 2021. “How does she navigate being pregnant on the job? How does she navigate when and where to tell people? And then also how long can you really do the action-y part of being a cop when you're pregnant? There's a lot of really rich stuff that we mine with her.”

After booking her first regular gig on *As the World Turns *(2005), Diaz made the rounds across the TV landscape with years of guest spots on shows as varied as* Southland *(2009–2010), *The Vampire Diaries* (2012), and *Lucifer *(2016). She also had a string of semi-regular homes on *Army Wives* (2012–2013), *Ray Donovan* (2015–2018), and *Zoo* (2016–2017).

Diaz is engaged to Grammy-nominated musician Gustavo Galindo, with whom she shares two children.

Melissa O’Neil (Sgt. Lucy Chen)

Melissa O'Neil in the pilot of 'The Rookie'; O'Neil at ABC's End of Summer Soiree in 2025.

ABC/Eric McCandless; JC Olivera/Variety via Getty

The less said of the crossover with *American Idol*, the better, but at least we found out that the ambitious Lucy has a lovely voice. That tracks, of course — the Alberta-born star Melissa O’Neil won *Canadian Idol *in 2005.

Despite a rocky start to her rookie year, Chen is remarkably good in a tough situation, whether she’s deep undercover or being kidnapped by a serial killer who *buried her in an oil barrel*. Bradford rescues her from that nightmare, and with that, their on-again, off-again romance became the relationship most *Rookie* fans root for.

Last July, O’Neil shared an Instagram post with behind-the-scenes footage of her, Cox, and Diaz getting back into the *Rookie *groove on the firing range with their armorers.

“Still a few days out till I’m back on set but we’re getting ready! We’re so lucky to have access to these resources and knowledge from our team,” she wrote. “It’s a wild thing to work with firearms.”

O’Neil started her career in music and musical theater, from her *Idol* win to the Broadway stage in *Jesus Christ Superstar *and* Les Misérables*. Her on-screen breakout was SyFy’s space opera *Dark Matter* (2015–2017).

She subsequently scored guest arcs on *iZombie* (2018) and *Condor* (2018) before clocking into her long *Rookie* shift.

Richard T. Jones (Lt. Wade Grey)

Richard T. Jones in 'The Rookie' pilot; Jones at the Disney Upfront in 2025.

ABC/Tony Rivetti; Arturo Holmes/Getty

If anything best sums up Watch Commander Grey, it’s that he takes his wife out the night *before *Valentine’s Day every year to avoid any potential holiday craziness. That’s the kind of forethought required to manage the officers running around the Mid-Wilshire station: a 26-year LAPD veteran with a steady hand, who also enjoys making fun of a rookie every once in a while.

Also, for the record, he did not faint after donating blood! He “briefly succumbed to gravity.”

Jones has a solid handle on his solid character: “Grey’s Grey. He always babysits a lot, so he’s more concerned about his people and keeping them right,” he said in 2025. “He’s the biggest counselor of everybody. So he’s a bit in everybody’s life trying to counsel, trying to guide them into success in the field and actually at home as well.”

Jones has been working steadily since 1992. His first permanent gig came on *Judging Amy *(1999–2005) as the title character’s close confidant. He later become a regular on *Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles *(2008–2009) and the first season of *Narcos *(2015–2016), while remaining an in-demand guest actor, from stints on *Hawaii Five-0 *(2011–2013) to *Criminal Minds* (2017)*.*

The veteran actor is no stranger to movies either. After substantial early career roles in *The Wood *(1999) and *Event Horizon *(1997), he has appeared in *Super 8 *(2011), *Godzilla *(2014), and Tyler Perry’s *Why Did I Get Married? *(2007) as well as its 2010 follow-up.

Shawn Ashmore (ADA Wesley Evers)

Shawn Ashmore in season 1's 'The Ride Along'; Ashmore at the 2025 Disney Upfront.

Disney+; John Nacion/WireImage

Despite being born into wealth, Wesley Evers first appears as an overworked public defender who takes issue with cops not following procedure. But after Angela is kidnapped by La Fiera, a desperate Wesley turns to a drug lord for help, a move he regrets almost immediately and which follows him for several seasons.

Along the way, he leaves criminal defense and joins the district attorney's office, letting him occasionally team up with his detective wife in taking down the bad guys — including a few former clients.

For his part, Shawn Ashmore welcomed the impact that change had on the character and his marriage. “I think that's very healthy, and I think that's an important part of the show,” he said in 2025. “Characters have to continue to grow to be interesting... I think that if Wesley had stayed defense attorney, that conflict between them might've started to feel old.”

Ashmore has been acting since childhood alongside his identical twin, Aaron. His first major roles were on the children’s show *Animorphs* (1998–1999) and the Canadian drama* In a* *Heartbeat* (2000–2001). The British Columbia native had a key role as an FBI Agent in Fox’s serial killer drama *The Following* (2013–2015) before becoming a superhero, Lamplighter, for a three-episode arc on *The Boys *(2020).

Of course, that’s not the only superpowered role on his résumé: Many still know him as Bobby Drake, a.k.a. Iceman, in the long-running *X-Men* franchise.

Ashmore married actress Dana Renee Wasdin in 2012. They have one child.

Jenna Dewan (Lt. Bailey Nune)

Jenna Dewan in season 3 of 'The Rookie'; Dewan at the 2025 Environmental Media Awards Gala.

Erica Parise/ABC via Getty; Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

Bailey wears many hats. She’s a lieutenant reservist in the Army National Guard, a firefighter, a paramedic, a teacher of the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira, a former collegiate gymnast, and (canonically!) a statistical improbability after dying at least five different times, once after skydiving.

All of that, and she can dance, too. Really, Nolan married way up.

On *The Rookie*, Jenna Dewan shared screentime with her real-life fiancé, Steve Kazee, who played her frightening, abusive husband, Jason Wyler. The pair shared many fraught scenes that found Bailey losing her usual cool.

“I think it was fun for him to play a really bad guy — just truly, outright bad — and it was fun for me to be able to unleash on him,” she told PEOPLE in 2025. “They’d say ‘Cut!’ and we’d immediately look at each other and start laughing, like, ‘What are we doing?’”

A former star of the *Step Up* movie franchise, Dewan has also made a name for herself on the small screen as a bunny on *The Playboy Club *(2011), a witch on *Witches of East End* (2013–2014), and as Lucy Lane on *Supergirl *(2015–2016).

After finalizing her divorce from Channing Tatum in 2019, Dewan and Kazee got engaged in 2020. She shares one child with Tatum and two with Kazee.

Titus Makin Jr. (Officer Jackson West)

Titus Makin Jr. in season 1 of 'The Rookie'; Makin at the 'Bringing Back Christmas' premiere in 2023.

ABC/Tony Rivetti; Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock

An LAPD legacy kid, Jackson was the most prepared rookie anyone could ask for — on paper, at least. In reality, he struggles early on but rises to the occasion when Bradford is in danger. Still, he’s a rule-follower at heart and has to learn to trust his instincts.

Those instincts come in handy when getting together with Hollywood star Sterling Freeman (Daniel Lissing), but prove important in a much less fun way when dealing with a racist training officer (Brandon Routh). Sadly, West was killed by La Fiera’s men off-screen between seasons 3 and 4.

Before the start of his final season, Titus Makin Jr. told EW he was reluctant to return in light of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

“A lot of people are finding a voice, and I found that for myself, where I was like, ‘Oh wow, I’ve been complacent,’” Makin said. “I woke up one morning and I was watching the news, and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t go play a cop on a show and not talk about the fact that I’m a Black cop.’ My character hadn’t addressed any of that.”

Makin’s big TV break was a recurring role on *Glee *(2010–2012), after which he scored stints on *Pretty Little Liars* (2015) and Hulu’s *The Path* (2018). Since departing *The Rookie*, he has starred in Sanaa Lathan’s *On the Come Up *(2022) as well as *Sins of the Bride* (2024).

The Hawai’i native is also a singer and songwriter under the name Butterfly Ali.

Mercedes Mason (Captain Zoe Andersen)

Mercedes Mason in the first episode of 'The Rookie'; Mason at a cancer benefit event in 2025.

ABC/Tony Rivetti; Amanda Edwards/Getty

Mercedes Mason played Zoe, the division’s original captain who was well-loved by her officers, but missed being in the field enough to join the investigation into the violent Southern Front gang. When she and Nolan were captured by the group’s leader Cole Midas, Andersen escaped her bonds by breaking her own thumb and getting the drop on the gang — but got shot and killed by an escaping Midas.

The shocking season 1 finale let viewers know *The Rookie *wouldn’t play it safe with characters, no matter how popular. Despite her character’s ultimate fate, Mason praised the show’s optimism.

“We’re so hyper-aware of all this hatred and all the horrors going on in the world,” she said. “I think it's naturally human instinct to seek some sort of affirmation that human nature is good. That there are still good people out there.”

Mason is best known for playing Ofelia on *Fear the Walking Dead* (2015–2017) and recurring parts on *How to Get Away with Murder *(2019) and* NCIS: Los Angeles *(2014–2022).

The Swedish actress has been married to *The Office *actor David Denman since 2014. The couple share two children.

Lisseth Chavez (Officer Celina Juarez)

Lisseth Chavez in the episode 'A Hole in the World'; Chavez at the 2024 premiere of 'Lioness'.

ABC/John Fleenor; Amy Sussman/Getty

Eventually, the rookie had to become the training officer. Enter Celina, Nolan’s first trainee. Played by Lisseth Chavez, Celina joined the force in season 5. Our resident new-age cop believes in astrology, clairvoyance, and the spirit world, much to Nolan’s chagrin. But her unusual policing style pays off; she becomes an officer who pays special attention to the world around her.

Celina lives with Lucy Chen and is dating musician Rodge Bronson, writer of the Nolan-inspired bop “Daddy Cop.”

“We’ve really seen Celina coming into her own as an officer,” Chavez said in 2025, midway through the character’s third season. “Finally, right? She’d been a rookie forever.”

Chavez already had experience playing a rookie cop; she portrayed Vanessa Rojas while completing the triple crown of the Chicago franchise shows (*P.D., Med, *and* Fire*). Meanwhile, Arrowverse fans know her as Esperanza Cruz on *DC’s Legends of Tomorrow* (2021–2022).

Flula Borg (Skip Tracer Randy Spitz)

Flula Borg in the episode 'Long Shot'; Borg at the 'Superman' premiere in 2025.

Raymond Liu/ABC via Getty; River Callaway/Variety via Getty

Any show where characters are regularly shot, kidnapped, and/or tortured needs a touch of comedy, and that’s where German bounty hunter Randy comes in.

The eternally romantic and goofy trouble magnet considers himself a dear friend of Nolan and Bailey, turning to them for help when he gets framed for murder or just needs advice on his love life — again. He is also ordained, just in case anyone needs a last-minute wedding handled.

While a visit from Randy spells nothing but chaos, Flula Borg describes himself as the opposite. “I love routines,” he said about his strict fitness regimen. “I’m a German man. I like everything very organized.”

Borg broke out as the scene-stealing lead singer of the German a capella group Das Sound Machine in the hit comedy *Pitch Perfect 2 *(2015). In addition to dozens of voice acting roles, he has had guest spots on *Mr. Mayor* (2021)*, Ghosts* (2023)*, Silicon Valley* (2017)*, *and* Curb Your Enthusiasm* (2017). The actor also had a small part as Javelin in James Gunn’s *The Suicide Squad *(2021).

Bridget Regan (Monica Stevens)

Bridget Regan in season 5's 'The Reckoning'; Regan at the 'Gatz' opening night in 2024.

Disney+; Manny Carabel/Getty

An excellent attorney and terrible person, Wesley Evers' ex-fiancee Monica Stevens represents either the worst criminals or whoever will torture the Mid-Wilshire crew the most. Her criminality escalates over time, up to and including murder, but she always manages to escape real punishment.

By the end of season 7, she’s completely free due to a federal immunity deal, but it’s safe to say she won’t keep her slate clean for long.

“Part of the joy of figuring out some of our villains is how to keep them fresh,” Hawley said in August 2025. “Monica showing up with an immunity deal was a great button to the end of the season. I think that, ultimately, it's going to generate some great stories for us going forward, like our trip to Prague, because ultimately, part of her immunity deal is helping us catch a few bad guys. So now she becomes part of the team. It's a weird thing.”

After her breakout role on Sam Raimi’s fantasy series *Legend of the Seeker *(2008–2010), Regan went on to play ass-kickers on *Jane the Virgin* (2014–2019), *The Last Ship* (2016–2018), and *Agent Carter* (2015–2016). She also landed a memorable bit appearance in *John Wick *(2014) and most recently appeared in *Sarah’s Oil *(2025).

In 2010, she married Eamon O’Sullivan. They have two children.

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