Sakina Jaffrey

With a pair of acting parents, Sakina Jaffrey's path might have seemed clear from the outset, but that wasn't the case. Growing up in New York City, Jaffrey initially didn't follow in her parents' footsteps, despite appearing in a few professional stage performances in her teen years. She went to Vassar College and studied Chinese with the hopes of becoming a translator. The pull of acting became too great, though, and in her mid-20s, she began to focus on the craft. Her first film appearance was in "The Perfect Murder" (1988) alongside her mother Madhur Jaffrey. Over the next decade, she sporadically appeared in films, ranging from the literary adaptation "The Indian in the Cupboard" (1995) to "Masala" (1991), the latter of which was her only appearance alongside her father Saeed Jaffrey. She played a major role in the Jonathan Demme thriller "The Truth About Charlie" (2002), which led to her appearing in future Demme movies, including his remake "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004). In 2003, she appeared as a recurring character on "Third Watch" (NBC 1999-2005). The rest of the decade was filled with bit parts in movies ranging from "Definitely, Maybe" (2008) to "The Nanny Diaries" (2007). In 2013, Jaffrey first played the role of Linda Vasquez on the Kevin Spacey-starring drama "House of Cards" (Netflix 2013- ). As her time there ended, she recurred on cast of "Sleepy Hollow" (Fox 2013- ) in its second season. Small runs on "Mr. Robot" (USA 2015- ) and "The Mindy Project" (Fox/Hulu 2012- ) also dotted Jaffrey's resume over the ensuing years. Those all lead to playing the main role of Agent Denise Christopher on the sci-fi drama "Timeless" (NBC 2016- ).