Ellsworth’s Killer Role

Kiko Ellsworth (Jamal) played a vampire on PORT CHARLES, and now he’s taking a bite out of CRIMINAL MINDS via a plum guest role in the Wednesday, April 22, episode titled “Mr. Scratch.”

“I’m playing a man named Daniel Karras who, through an unfortunate event, is accused of killing a female member of his family that he’d been very close to,” Ellsworth relates. “Only he doesn’t remember doing it, and he’s deeply broken up over what has happened.”

In the episode, Daniel will actually be one of three people (another is played by THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS’ Thad Luckinbill [ex-J.T.]) implicated in the crime, and all of them claim to have been attacked by a clawed shadow monster! Can the Behavioral Analysis Unit figure out who — or what — might be controlling their minds?

For Ellsworth, the opportunity to be a part of this storyline was meaningful to him personally. For the last several years, he’s been committed to the empowerment of women and bringing awareness to domestic violence via the charity Safe Passage, as well through teaching self-defense classes. “If I can prevent one man from hitting, raping, murdering, kidnapping or sex-trafficking a female,” Ellsworth suggests, “Then hopefully the pain that my character goes through can prevent [what happens in the episode] from happening to one woman.” Tune it at 9:00 p.m. EST on CBS to catch it!