What The Actor Who Played Kate On NCIS Has Been Doing Since Leaving The Show

Five years after Kate met her end, Alexander started playing the lead in another crime drama. She appeared as Dr. Maura Isles, the socially awkward and corpse-obsessed Chief Medical Examiner for Massachusetts, in all seven seasons of TNT's Rizzoli & Isles. In 2016, the part saw her beat out three Pretty Little Liars and Hilary Duff to win a People's Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Actress.

Alexander's departure from her longest-running role to date was much less dramatic than her experience on NCIS. After six years on air, Alexander's contract expired, along with co-star Angie Harmon's. "We've had seven seasons to explore so many things and creatively I'm ready to move on," Alexander commented.

While bringing Isles to life in the morgue, Alexander took a role that brought another fancy title and a new challenge — or rather, a nude challenge. She joined Shameless as Professor Helené Runyon, who seduces her student Lip Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) while maintaining an open marriage. The part required sex scenes and nudity, which Alexander had never done before, but she took it in stride. She said that the truth behind filming a Hollywood love scene is that it's really just choreography, and she got into the moment. "No matter what hang-ups you might have about your body... all that is really thrown out the window once you dive into the scene," she told Deadline.