Megan Boone

Midwestern actress Megan Boone appeared to shoot overnight from relative obscurity to national stardom thanks to the hugely popular television series "The Blacklist," which cast her as a newly-minted FBI agent who becomes linked to a global crime figure. Born in Petoskey, Michgan, Boone was raised in The Villages, an age-restricted community designed by her grandfather, H. Gary Morse, in Sumter County, Florida. She began acting as a student at Belleview High School and earned her BFA in performing from Florida State University's School of Theatre in 2005. After gaining additional training with Emmy-winning actress Jane Alexander and Tony-winning playwright Mark Medoff, Boone relocated to Los Angeles, where she began appearing in guest roles on episodic series like "Cold Case" (CBS, 2003-2010). Her feature film debut came in the 2009 horror remake "My Bloody Valentine 3D," after which Boone worked steadily, if somewhat anonymously, in features like "The Myth of the American Sleepover" (2010) and "Sex and the City 2" (2010). That same year, she landed the lead in the pilot for a CW medical series called "HMS," about a young doctor-in-training at the titular hall of education, but the show was not picked up by the network. Boone then segued to "Law & Order: Los Angeles" (NBC, 2010-11) for the program's single season on the air before returning to supporting turns in features like "Step Up Revolution" (2012), a modestly successful entry in the long-running dance film series, and the comedy "Welcome to the Jungle" (2013) with Jean-Claude Van Damme. That same year, she was cast as the female lead in the highly-anticipated action drama "The Blacklist" (NBC 2013-), which starred James Spader as a urbane yet dangerous master criminal who aids a novice FBI profiler (Boone) in tracking down some of the world's most wanted felons. The series became an enormous ratings hit in its first season, thanks largely to the chemistry between Boone and Spader, as well as a complex storyline which alluded to a possible familial relationship between their characters.