Kirsten Vangsness is best known for playing Penelope Garcia, the bespectacled FBI tech-kitten on the long-running CBS crime drama Criminal Minds and its Paramount+ reboot, Criminal Minds: Evolution.

A dedicated art maven and all-around creative force, Vangsness co-wrote five episodes of Criminal Minds; wrote and stars in the online series Kirsten's Agenda; and wrote, directed and stars in the animated short Curtains. She is also the star of the noir spoof Kill Me, Deadly and has been featured in many other films and television productions.

Vangsness can be heard wherever you listen to podcasts on the new theater and politics mash-up Nimrod — a brute-farce comedy in verse — and she recently reprised her titular role in Lottie Patchett Took a Hatchet at the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

She was a critically acclaimed 2019 Edinburgh Fringe playwright and actor in two plays (her solo piece Mess and Cleo, Theo & Wu, a feminist space romp musical she penned), and she is at work on a new solo show coming this winter. In addition, she is a company member of Hollywood's Theater of NOTE, where she hosts Bits!, a monthly art salon for folks to present new bits of creative work in no more than seven minutes. She encourages you to come check it out — it's a delight.

Her numerous professional accolades include the Open Fist Excellence in the Arts Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Natalie Schafer Award and the HRC Visibility Award.

To learn about her goings-on, follow her on Instagram at @kirstenvangsness.