Reiko Aylesworth

Reiko Aylesworth played Michelle Dessler on 24 and voiced the same character in 24: The Game.

Biography
Reiko was born in Chicago on 1972. Casually, she was born in the same hospital as her on-screen husband, Carlos Bernard. Reiko is half-Dutch, one quarter Japanese, and one quarter Welsh. When she was 15, Reiko moved to Seattle, Washington. She attended the University of Washington where she studied neural science.

Reiko debuted in 1993 on the TV series "One Life to Live". After that, she has appeared on shows like "Law & Order" (with Frank John Hughes), the short-lived CBS show "Now and Again" (with Dennis Haysbert), "Conviction" (with Eric Balfour), and "Stargate Universe" (with Lou Diamond Phillips, Robert Carlyle and Carlo Rota). Reiko also made a guest appearance in the fifth season premiere of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (with Jose Zuniga). Her role was supposed to be a recurring role, but when she was asked to return for the fourth season of 24, she stepped down. She was replaced by Aisha Tyler, who had played Marianne Taylor during the first episodes of that same season.

Reiko's also had recurring roles on series like "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", "All Souls", "The American Embassy", "ER" (with Leland Orser, Jesse Borrego, and Marcus Brown), and "Lost" (with Daniel Dae Kim, Jon Gries, John Terry, and François Chau).

Aside of her television work, Reiko also starred on films like Magma: Volcanic Disaster and The Last Full Measure (both with Xander Berkeley), You've Got Mail, Random Hearts (with Dennis Haysbert, Kate Mara, and Christina Chang), Man on the Moon (with Mary Lynn Rajskub and Brent Briscoe), Fathers and Sons (with Phillip Rhys), Crazylove (with JoBeth Williams, John Terry, and Paul Schulze), First. (with DB Woodside), and more recently AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator Requiem.

Role on 24
Reiko originally auditioned for the parts of Nina Myers on Season 1, and Kate Warner on Season 2. However, after losing to Sarah Clarke and Sarah Wynter respectively, the producers asked her to play Michelle Dessler. Reiko has said that Michelle is her favorite of all the characters she has played, and she describes her as "a strong woman with a big heart" and "she's based on my mom".

She and her on-screen husband Carlos Bernard are still friends even after their time together on 24 concluded. On the commentary for season 2's Day 2: 11:00am-12:00pm, Bernard, Wynter and Michelle Forbes speak at length about their praise for Reiko's performance.

24-related appearances

 * Aylesworth provided DVD audio commentary for the episode Day 3 5:00am-6:00am (with Carlos Bernard and Robert Cochran).
 * 24: On the Loose, Season 3 DVD