“I was literally kissing my wife goodbye”- Zach Gilford opens up on his wife being cast in Criminal Minds: Evolution

Criminal Minds: Evolution is currently streaming on Paramount+ and Disney+. The police procedural drama is a revival of the critically acclaimed TV series Criminal Minds, which ran from 2005 to 2020.

Zach Gilford (NBC sports drama series Friday Night Lights, Netflix’s Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club) is playing the pivotal role of Elias Voit, the main antagonist and “mysterious perpetrator” in Criminal Minds: Evolution. However, it has somewhat become a family affair for him.

The second episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution, Sicarius, shows that Voit is no ordinary FBI UnSub (Unknown Subject). The dangerous operations analyst runs a network of serial killers and is happily married. He has skillfully managed to keep his wife and their two children in the dark.

Voit’s wife is none other than Gilford’s real spouse, The Glades actress Kiele Sanchez. The Chicago native is also known for her performances in Related, Samantha Who?, A Perfect Getaway, and Kingdom, among others. The couple, who have been married since 2012, have a daughter.

While talking to ET, Gilford said he learned about Sanchez’s inclusion in Criminal Minds: Evolution “on my way to work one day.”

“I was literally kissing her goodbye and she picked up her phone, was like, 'I just got an offer to play your wife on Criminal Minds.' And I was like, 'What? That's awesome.'”

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Criminal Minds: Evolution's Zach Gilford shares his experience of working with his wife, Kiele Sanchez

When asked about his experience of working with his partner, Gilford shared that during heavy scenes, things got “really gross” for them, otherwise it’s “been fun” till now.

“It's just been so fun. But there's days at work where you're having dark, heavy scenes with your make-believe wife, but when it's your real-life wife, it's heavy. We both will go home and we'll be like, 'That was really gross,' have a drink and just shake it off.”

The actor shared that while they're “not people who bring our work home,” it was different doing the scenes with somebody playing his wife and performing the scenes with his wife.

“It's one thing when you do these scenes with an actress and you're imagining, 'Well, this doesn't mean my life with my wife.' But then when you're actually having these interactions with your wife, but you're in this make-believe experience, it almost feels like bad therapy role-playing.”

Gilford added that while he and Kiele have worked together before, they “never had this relationship between characters.” He added that it was a fun experience.

“It's been fun to be at work together and do stuff with each other. I think she's such a good actress and to get to have her as my scene partner [is wonderful]. But it is just like, it feels icky sometimes.”

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Gilford praises the show's writers

Criminal Minds: Evolution shows how a group of highly-skilled officers of the FBI branch Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) bust a serial killers’ network, built during the pandemic.

A global cyber-security firm employee, Voit is obsessed with death and is effectively the new but tough challenge for BAU.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Gilford said the clarity on the writers’ part aided in his understanding of the unconventional family man.

“The writers kind of already knew who I was and where they were gonna go, and they were able to tell me that. Everything from his origin story, which we get a little, which we get to go into, and who he is in the normal world when he’s not being a serial killer.”

After joining the team in September 2022, Gilford tweeted:

“They've welcomed me with open arms… even though I've got a "dark side.””

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What did the first episode show?

The premiere episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution, Just Getting Started, was about a teenage girl who got kidnapped from her residence in Bethesda, Maryland.

Her parents were also killed, and the BAU suspects a murderer who once killed four members of a Virginia-based family. Elsewhere, BAU Supervisory Special Agent and FBI Forensic Psychologist Tara Lewis, played by Tyler, probes a series of bodies found in a storage container in Yakima County, Washington.

Series favorites Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez, and Josh Stewart are back in their respective roles.