| A.J. Cook | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Character Debbie Shields | ||
| Date of birth July 22, 1978 | ||
| Place of birth Oshawa, Ontario, Canada | ||
| IMDb profile |
Andrea Joy Cook is an actress who is mostly known for her role as Jennifer Jareau on the CBS TV series Criminal Minds (with Paget Brewster, Lola Glaudini, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Mandy Patinkin, Damon Gupton, and Adam Rodriguez). She reprised her role in the revival series, Criminal Minds: Evolution (with Zach Gilford), which premiered on November 24, 2022 on Paramount+.
She guest-starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the episode "Mask" as Debbie Shields.
Cook has also appeared in The Virgin Suicides (1999), Higher Ground (2000), Ripper (2001), Out Cold (2001), Final Destination 2 (2003), and Tru Calling (2003–2004).
On August 3, 2001, she married her long-time boyfriend, Nathan Andersen. The two met in a film class at Utah Valley University, and she later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to be with him. They reside in Los Angeles, California with their two sons, Mekhai and Phoenix.
In September 2008, their first son Mekhai Allan was born. He makes a brief appearance as Henry LaMontagne in an episode of Criminal Minds, when Cook's character is buying children's medicine from a pharmacy. He reprised the role in the two-hour season seven finale in 2012 and several other episodes throughout the series. The couple's second son, Phoenix Sky, was born in July 2015. He also appeared in Criminal Minds as JJ's second son, Michael.