Elsbeth Season 2 New Cast & Returning Character Guide

Elsbeth has several core actors in its season 2 cast. The cozy mystery stars Carrie Preston as the title character, an eccentric attorney first seen in The Good Wife but who has now moved to New York City. Elsbeth season 2 again has the title character consulting with the NYPD about officer behavior while also solving murder mysteries in a Columbo-like manner, as the audience already knows the identity of each week's killer.

There are many stars from The Good Wife and The Good Fight who could visit Elsbeth. However, for the most part, the series is not engaging in this type of casting for season 2. Instead, Elsbeth has a small core cast, consisting only of the title character and the police officers she works with. Villains and suspects are played by a rotating guest star cast, and some guest stars might be more well-known than others.

Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni

Date of Birth: June 21, 1967

• Active since: 1985

Actor: Carrie Preston was born in Macon, Georgia, and achieved mainstream recognition in 2008's True Blood after years of small roles on many established shows, including Arrested Development and Law & Order: SVU. Preston is best known for playing Elsbeth on three separate series, having originated the character in The Good Wife and also appeared in The Good Fight prior to Elsbeth's premiere in April 2024. She also played Debbie in Happyish and Nartina in Crowded.

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Character: Elsbeth is an attorney who is known both for her eccentricity and her phenomenal case closure rate. Originally from Chicago, she now lives and works in New York City, where she was initially hired to oversee the practices at the NYPD while secretly being tasked with investigating Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce). Elsbeth's trademark is carrying many bags, which usually contain random items she needs to solve a given case. She also often zeroes in on the correct suspect while the cops are focused on someone else.

Wendell Pierce as Captain Charles Wallace Wagner

Date of Birth: December 8, 1963

• Active since: 1986

Actor: Wendell Pierce was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and broke big in The Wire. He is a versatile actor who has both comedic and dramatic skills; although he is best known for more serious roles such as Zane in Suits and Alderman Price in Chicago PD, he also played goofy neighbor Teddy in the version of The Odd Couple starring Matthew Perry and Harris Green in The Michael J. Fox Show. He also sometimes has comedic scenes in Elsbeth.

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Character: Captain Wagner is the head of the precinct where Elsbeth is consulting. He and Elsbeth initially had an adversarial relationship, as he didn't think solving murders was part of her job and didn't appreciate her constantly besting him by solving the case correctly while he was focused on the wrong suspect. Additionally, he was upset when he found out Elsbeth had been tasked with spying on him and finding out if he did anything unethical. However, after Wagner's name was cleared, he calmed down about Elsbeth and asked her to stay in New York.

Carra Patterson as Officer Kaya Blanke

Date of Birth: January 31 [No Year Given]

• Active since: 2008

Actor: Carra Patterson was born in St. Petersberg, Florida, and burst onto the scene with The Arrangement, a 2017 TV series about a TV actress who is paid $10 million to marry Hollywood's biggest star. Although she has only had a few major roles to date, she has had several guest appearances on popular shows such as Blue Bloods, Elementary, and The Good Wife, and also starred as Jessica Baxter in Disney+'s Turner & Hooch, a TV series based on the Tom Hanks movie.

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Character: Kaya is a sweet, smart uniformed police officer who works for Captain Wagner. She and Elsbeth developed a friendship during season 1; however, their relationship was threatened when she learned Elsbeth was spying on Captain Wagner and he wanted Kaya to be a counter-spy who told him what Elsbeth was up to and what she knew. In season 2, Kaya is considering becoming a detective but needs to finish some coursework before she can be considered. She trusts Elsbeth's judgment and usually agrees with her about who committed each murder.

Elsbeth Supporting Cast And Characters

Christian Borle as Carter Schmidt: Borle is reprising his role from The Good Wife as an attorney who is acquainted with Elsbeth. He is also known as Caddy in The Bounty Hunter and Emmett in Legally Blonde: The Musical

Daniel Oreskes as Buzz Fleming: a detective Kaya has to work with in Elsbeth, who thinks he knows better than she does who to focus on. Oreskes appeared in Only Murders in the Building season 3 as Marv, a fan of the podcast who hung around the Arcadia hoping to catch a glimpse of them. Coincidentally, his character in Law & Order: Organized Crime was also named Marv and was a lieutenant during the first season who kept telling Stabler to drop Kathy's case and follow protocols.

Elsbeth is a crime drama series that began airing in 2024 on CBS and Paramount+. The series follows attorney Elsbeth Tascioni, who leaves her career behind to join the NYPD and become an investigator, using her unique skills to catch criminal masterminds. Elsbeth is also a spinoff of the original television series The Good Wife.

Cast Carrie Preston , Fredric Lehne , Danny Mastrogiorgio , Jane Krakowski , Wendell Pierce , Gloria Reuben , Retta , Linda Lavin

Release Date February 29, 2024

Seasons 1