# Erica Gimpel

Erica Fawn Gimpel (born June 25, 1964) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and composer. She is best known for her roles on television shows Fame as Coco Hernandez and on Profiler as Angel Brown. She is also known for her recurring roles on the television shows ER as Adele Newman and on Veronica Mars as Alicia Fennel. From 2018 to 2020, Gimpel had a series regular role as Trish on the series God Friended Me.
Gimpel was a judge on RTÉ One's Fame: The Musical, an Irish TV talent show seeking a boy and a girl to play Nick and Serena respectively in the Irish touring production of Fame.
In January 2010, Gimpel released her first CD, Spread your Wings and Fly.

## Personal life

Gimpel was born in Manhattan, New York City in 1964. She graduated from New York's High School of Performing Arts a few months after she started filming her role as a student at the same school for the television show Fame. She had toured the United States and Europe with her mother, singer Phyllis Bash, who was in the opera Porgy and Bess. Her father was Joseph Gimpel, an actor, singer and writer.

## Career
### Film and television

Gimpel has starred in numerous primetime and streaming shows including NCIS: New Orleans, Chicago Med, Grey's Anatomy, Shut Eye, True Blood, Criminal Minds, Nikita, Rizzoli & Isles, House, ER, Profiler, and Veronica Mars. One of Gimpel's favorite projects was playing Trish on the CBS drama God Friended Me for two seasons. She played Ellie Fielding in Mayfair Witches and Brittany Arrington on The Night Agent.
On film, she has appeared in Tuesday Morning Ride (1995), Smoke, King of New York, No Such Thing, Freaky Friday, Romeo and Juliet in Harlem, and Sylvie's Love, and in the independent feature Bang Bang (2023).

### Theater

Theater credits include originating the role of Mayme in Lynn Nottage's award-winning Intimate Apparel., Glory Bee in States of Shock, and Nelly in Each Day Dies With Sleep. Gimpel received the Stage Raw Award for Best Solo Performance for her work in the one-woman play Sister by Michael Phillip Edwards.

### Music

Gimpel composed and performed the song "This Moment" on God Friended Me. She also co-wrote and performed the song "Goodbye" on Babylon 5.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1988 | Case Closed | Kathy | TV movie |
| 1990 | King of New York | Dr. Shute | |
| 1990 | Penny Ante: The Motion Picture | Dale Martinez | |
| 1991 | Homicide | Woman with Randolph | |
| 1991 | Undertow | Nina | |
| 1994 | The Fence | Jackie | |
| 1994 | Amateur | Irate Woman | |
| 1995 | Smoke | Doreen Cole | |
| 1995 | Flirt | Nurse | |
| 1995 | Tuesday Morning Ride | Modine | Short |
| 1995 | The Price of Love | Officer Hudson | TV movie |
| 1996 | Sticks & Stones | Miss William | |
| 1997 | Touch Me | Kareen | |
| 1999 | Santa and Pete | Cassie Moore | TV movie |
| 1999 | Intimate Betrayal | Toni | TV movie |
| 2001 | No Such Thing | Judy | |
| 2001 | Impostor | Newscaster No. 1 | |
| 2003 | Freaky Friday | Harry's Teacher | |
| 2004 | In Your Eyes | Yolie | |
| 2004 | A Boyfriend for Christmas | Beth | TV movie |
| 2004 | Betty's Treats | Mrs. Wilson | Short |
| 2004 | Beck and Call | Leah | TV Short |
| 2006 | Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall | Margaret Monroe | TV movie |
| 2007 | The List | Gail | |
| 2009 | Veronika Decides to Die | Nurse White | |
| 2009 | Blue Eyes | Sandra | |
| 2010 | Machete Joe | Erica | |
| 2013 | Tio Papi | Det. Johnson | |
| 2015 | Cloudy with a Chance of Love | Dr. Ruth Harris | TV movie |
| 2015 | Sex, Death and Bowling | Shanti | |
| 2017 | Romeo and Juliet in Harlem | Nurse | |
| 2020 | Sylvie's Love | Eunice | |
| 2021 | Far More | Shanti | |
| 2024 | Bang Bang | Sharon | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1982–87 | Fame | Coco Hernandez | Main Cast: Season 1–3, Guest: Season 4 & 6 |
| 1985 | Spenser: For Hire | Shelley | Episode: "Original Sin" |
| 1985 | North and South | Semiramis | Main Cast |
| 1986 | North and South, Book II | Semiramis | Main Cast |
| 1988 | The Cosby Show | Jennifer | Episode: "Waterworks" |
| 1990 | American Playhouse | Wendy | Episode: "Women & Wallace" |
| 1994 | Law & Order | Templeton | Episode: "Breeder" |
| 1994 | Touched by an Angel | Sydney Jessup | Episode: "Tough Love" |
| 1995 | New York Undercover | Melinda | Episode: "The Smoking Section" |
| 1996 | Babylon 5 | Cailyn | Episode: "Walkabout" |
| 1996–99 | Profiler | Angel Brown | Main Cast: Season 1–3, Recurring Cast: Season 3-4 |
| 1997 | The Big Easy | Felice Carlyle | Episode: "Driving Ms. Money" |
| 1997–03 | ER | Adele Newman | Recurring Cast: Season 3-4 & 6–8, Guest: Season 9 |
| 1999 | Any Day Now | Laura Sanders | Episode: "A Parent's Job" |
| 2000 | The District | Ella's Lawyer | Episode: "The Real Terrorist" & "How They Lived" |
| 2001 | Roswell | FBI Agent Suzanne Duff | Recurring Cast: Season 2 |
| 2002 | Touched by an Angel | Sydney Jessup | Episode: "The Last Chapter" |
| 2002 | MDs | Allison Greely | Episode: "Cruel and Unusual" |
| 2003–04 | JAG | Varese Chestnut | Episode: "A Merry Little Christmas" & "What If" |
| 2004 | The Division | Aimee Breckridge | Episode: "Bite Me" |
| 2004–06 | Veronica Mars | Alicia Fennel | Recurring Cast: Season 1-2 |
| 2005 | Everwood | Dr. Gans | Episode: "Surprise" |
| 2006 | House | Elizabeth Stone | Episode: "Failure to Communicate" |
| 2006 | Numb3rs | Principal Riva Bell | Episode: "Waste Not" |
| 2006 | Criminal Minds | Sarah | Episode: "Profiler, Profiled" |
| 2006–07 | Boston Legal | Attorney Samantha Fried | Recurring Cast: Season 2, Guest: Season 3 |
| 2007 | Close to Home | Dr. Udell | Episode: "Protégé" |
| 2007 | Murder 101: If Wishes Were Horses | Police Sgt. Joanne Matterson | Episode: "If Wishes Were Horses" |
| 2008 | Eleventh Hour | Lizzie Summers | Episode: "Cardiac" |
| 2009 | Grey's Anatomy | Bethany Anderson | Episode: "Invest in Love" |
| 2011 | Prime Suspect | Principal | Episode: "Wednesday's Child" |
| 2011 | The Young and the Restless | Det. Harriet Mauro | Regular Cast |
| 2011–12 | Rizzoli & Isles | ER Doctor | Guest Cast: Season 2-3 |
| 2012 | Nikita | Carla Bennett | Recurring Cast: Season 2 |
| 2012 | Criminal Minds | Sarah | Episode: "The Company" |
| 2012 | True Blood | Faerie Elder | Episode: "Sunset" |
| 2013 | Cult | Ginny Yarrow | Episode: "The Good Fight" & "The Devil You Know" |
| 2014 | Switched at Birth | Yvette Gifford | Episode: "Have You Really the Courage?" |
| 2014 | Enormous | Caroline | Episode: "Enormous" |
| 2015 | Code Black | Alice Sellers | Episode: "Black Tag" |
| 2016 | The Catch | Renée Etheridge | Episode: "The Larágan Gambit" |
| 2016 | Murder in the First | Corinne Hager | Episode: "The Barbers of Seville" |
| 2017 | Shut Eye | Agent Sims | Recurring Cast: Season 2 |
| 2018 | Chicago Med | Lydia Singleton | Episode: "An Inconvenient Truth" |
| 2018–20 | God Friended Me | Trisha | Recurring Cast: Season 1, Main Cast: Season 2 |
| 2021 | NCIS New Orleans | Lynette Carter | Episode: "Leda and the Swan, Part 1 & 2" |
| 2022 | 9-1-1 | Pauline Barrett | Episode: "Fear-o-phobia" |
| 2023 | Mayfair Witches | Elena "Ellie" Fielding | Recurring Cast |
| 2023 | The Night Agent | Brittany Arrington | Episode: "The Marionette" |