In 2006, Jennifer Carpenter was an up-and-coming actress whose luck changed virtually overnight
when she booked the second lead on Showtime's breakout serial killer drama Dexter.
Carpenter frequently stole the spotlight from star Michael C. Hall with her impassioned
turn as Dexter's foster sister Debra, a homicide detective whose caseload often overlapped
with her duplicitous brother's own crimes.
It's been almost seven years since Dexter's divisive finale episode aired, and fans are
still wondering if Carpenter's Debra got the send-off she deserved.
As for Carpenter herself, she's maintained a lower profile recently, but she's more than
kept herself busy since leaving Debra and Dexter behind.
Like so many actors in and around Hollywood over the past decade or so, Jennifer Carpenter
eventually found herself with a ticket to ride the Marvel money train, but it wasn't
quite of the first-class nature.
She only got to contribute her voice to the ever-expanding Marvel-verse through the animated
project Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher.
In the 2014 anime film, it's Carpenter's golden pipes - and not Scarlett Johansson's - you
hear as tough-as-nails Natasha Romanoff.
"Evening, Castle.
What have you got there?
Friend of yours?"
Marvel's Black Widow isn't the only big-time comic book character Jennifer Carpenter has
voiced since her days on Dexter.
Her second turn in the animated comic book movie world found her voicing Selina Kyle,
best known as Gotham City's Catwoman, in Warner Bros. and DC Comics' lavish, 19th-century
reimagining of the Dark Knight saga, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight.
Released to largely positive reviews in 2018, Gotham by Gaslight was adapted from the 1989
graphic novel of the same name, itself the first official offering from DC's "Elseworlds"
imprint.
Both the book and the film feature Bruce Wayne defending the streets of a gloriously steam-punky
Gotham as a Victorian-era Batman, eventually facing off against the infamous killer Jack
the Ripper.
But Carpenter hasn't shied away from performing in front of the camera as well.
Since leaving Dexter behind, the actress has sought out similar success on the small screen.
That search ultimately led the actress to the hyper-competitive realm of network television,
where she's delivered strong work in largely forgettable dramas.
The first of Carpenter's post-Dexter TV roles came on the short-lived dramedy Limitless,
which was based on the Bradley Cooper-starring movie of the same name.
That flick found Cooper tripping the life fantastic after ingesting a wonder drug that
enabled him to utilize the full potential of his brain.
The television adaptation, which was produced by Cooper and Joker director Todd Phillips,
followed a similar set up.
This time, however, the "gifted" man is out to make the world a safer place, and Carpenter
portrays the FBI Agent tasked with helping focus the man's energies on solving crimes.
"You will have plenty of stuff to go through in the morning."
Carpenter's next television venture found her playing the other side of the law as a
traitorous former CIA Agent forced to team up with the FBI to help track down their most-wanted
spy.
Titled The Enemy Within, Carpenter's timely espionage drama had the look of a winner when
it hit the air in 2019, but tragically never found its audience and was cancelled after
airing just 13 episodes.
The actress seems to have had better luck on the big screen, having found a patron of
sorts in cinematic rabble-rouser S. Craig Zahler, whose modern B-movie marvels include
Brawl in Cell Block 99 and 2019's disturbing dirty cop caper Dragged Across Concrete.
In the hyper-violent Brawl in Cell Block 99, Carpenter plays Lauren Thomas, the wife of
Vince Vaughn's Bradley Thomas, a retired boxer whose life of crime lands him behind bars
at the Redleaf Correctional Facility, where his troubles only grow more intense.
Throughout it all, Carpenter stayed devoted to the madness while breathing necessary life
into a character that's not quite three-dimensional.
She did the same in Dragged Across Concrete, bringing a refreshing humanity to tortured
young mother Kelly Summer, who serves as a smaller character against leads Mel Gibson
and Vince Vaughn, who play a pair of cops suspended after assaulting a suspect.
In late 2019, Carpenter was cast in the film A Mouthful of Air, alongside Amanda Seyfried
and Britt Robertson.
The film is an adaptation of Amy Koppelman's novel of the same name, and centers on a new
mother and children's book author who uses her own imaginary world as a means of escape
from postpartum depression.
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