Marisol Nichols (born November 2, 1973 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actress. She is of Hungarian Jewish descent on her biological father's side. Her mother is Mexican-American. Nichols was raised by her mother and stepfather. She also has two brothers.
Nichols is best known for her role as Special Agent Nadia Yassir in the FOX terrorism thriller 24, which she portrayed during its sixth season in 2007.
Outside of that series, she has appeared frequently in television, holding main or supporting roles in works like GCB, NCIS, and Criminal Minds.
She's also known for her work in works intended for a young adult audience. She appeared as the The Desert Wolf on MTV's Teen Wolf, based on the film of the same name. Since 2017, she's starred as Hermione Lodge (mother of Veronica) in The CW's Riverdale, based on the Archie Comics franchise.
She and director Taron Lexton married in 2008. They had a daughter named Rain the same year. They divorced in 2020 though. Nichols became a Scientologist in the 1990s, and still practices the religion.
Selected filmography:
- Beverly Hills, 90210 (1996) as Wendy Stevens
- ER (1997) as Angie
- Scream 2 (1997) as Dawnie
- Cybill (1998) as Bok Store Clerk
- Can't Hardly Wait (1998) as Groupie
- Boy Meets World (1999) as Kelly
- The Princess And The Marine (2001) as Meriam Al-Khalifa
- Alias (2002) as Rebecca Martinez
- Friends (2003) as Olivia
- Nip/Tuck (2003) as Antonia Ramos
- Charmed (1998) (2003) as Bianca
- ColdCase (2004) as Elisa
- Blind Justice (2005) as Detective Karen Bettancourt
- Big Momma's House 2 (2006) as Liliana Morales
- In Justice (2006) as Sonya Quintano
- 24 (2007) as Nadia Yassir
- The Gates (2010) as Sarah Monohan
- NCIS: Los Angeles (2010) as Tracy Keller
- GCB (2012) as Heather Cruz
- Private Practice (2012) as Lily Reilly
- NCIS (2014 - 2015) as ATF Special Agent Zoe Keats
- Teen Wolf (2014 - 2015) as The Desert Wolf
- Criminal Minds (2015 - 2016) as Agent Natalie Colfax
- Riverdale (2017 - 2023) as Hermione Lodge
- The Loud House (2020 - 2023) as Principal Ramirez (voice)
- The Valet (2022) as Isabel
Examples from her work include:
- Actor-Shared Background: She has played Latina women like her sometimes.
- Ambiguously Brown: A lot of her characters do not have their ethnic background given at all.
- Fake Nationality: She's of Mexican descent on her mother's side, and many of her roles reflect this, but she's also played people from other backgrounds. Her character on 24, for example, was Pakistani-American.
