Annie Wersching, an actress best known for her roles on TV dramas Bosch and 24 and for her portrayal of Leslie Dean, mother of alien superhero Karolina on Marvel’s Runaways, has died. she was 45
Wersching died of cancer Sunday morning in Los Angeles, a rep for the actress told . In a statement, her husband Stephen Full paid tribute to his wife and the mother of their three children.
“There is a huge hole in the soul of this family today. But she left us the tools to fill it,” he said. “She found miracles in the simplest of moments. She didn’t need music to dance to. She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you. “Go find it. It is everywhere.’ And we will find it.”
“As I drove our boys, the true loves of their lives, down the winding driveway and road, she yelled BYE! until we were out of earshot and into the world,” he continued. “I can still hear it ringing. bye my buddy ‘I love you little family…’”
Wersching, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, most recently had a number of recurring roles on Star Trek: Picard, where she played the Borg Queen, and The Rookie, where she starred as Rosalind Dyer, a murderess who escapes from prison.
Before that, she had starring roles on multiple seasons of 24, Bosch, and Marvel’s Runaways. In 24, Wersching portrayed Renee Walker, a Washington Field Office FBI special agent who works with Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer through the Day 7 and Day 8 arcs set in the seventh and eighth seasons of the series.
At Bosch, actress portrayed Julia Brasher, a new police officer in the LAPD’s Hollywood Division who crossed paths professionally and personally with Harry Bosch during the show’s first two seasons before returning for season 7 in 2021. Between 2019 and 2021, Wersching starred in Marvel’s Runaways, portraying the mother of semi-stranger Karolina in more than 30 episodes over three seasons of the Hulu series in a villain-turned-ally role that initially starred Leslie Dean against the teenage joined her daughter’s superhero friend group.
Her longest-running role was television producer Amelia Joffe in 80 episodes of the daytime soap General Hospital, along with several episodes on The CW’s The Vampire Diaries – as the mother of Paul Wesley and Ian Somerholder’s lead vampires Stefan and Damon – and NBC’s Timeless as Emma Whitmore, a time traveler and pilot who fakes her death and is stranded in time.
Throughout her career, she has appeared in a number of guest roles on popular shows such as Angel, Boston Legal, Charmed, Cold Case, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Frasier, Hawaii Five-0, NCIS, Rizzoli and Isles, and Supernatural.
In 2013, she reunited in a one-off episode with several 24 co-stars, including Sutherland, for an episode of his FOX series Touch. She has also reunited with Supernatural showrunner Eric Kripke for a two-part arc on his NBC series Revolution as the former love interest of Billy Burke’s character.
While working primarily in television, Wersching worked as a voice actress for video games, most recently in Bioware’s 2019 online action RPG Anthem. However, she is best known for her voice in The Last of Us as Tess, an apocalypse survivor and smuggling partner of the Main character of the Naughty Dog game, Joel Miller.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Wersching grew up interested in musical theater and Irish dance before attending Millikin University, where she graduated in 1999 with a BFA in musical theater. She lived in Chicago before touring with Anything Goes and A Christmas Carol, eventually appearing at prominent theaters and festivals including Chicago’s Victory Gardens, Marriott Lincolnshire and the Utah Shakespearean Festival.
In 2001, she moved to Los Angeles, where she began her acting career in the revival of Do I Hear A Waltz? continued. at the Pasadena Playhouse before landing her first TV appearance on Star Trek: Enterprise.
A GoFundMe was set up in her honor to support her family and help pay for funeral expenses.
Wersching is survived by her husband Full and their three children Freddie, Ozzie and Archie.