Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter has found her follow-up gig -- and she's staying in law enforcement.
The actress, who played Miami Metro detective Debra Morgan for eight seasons on the Showtime drama, has been tapped to star in ABC's drama pilot Sea of Fire, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
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Based on the Dutch format Vuurzee, the drama centers on three teenage girls in a small town who star in a pornographic film and the effect it has on their families. It leads to a disappearance, a murder and a host of other secrets boiling under the surface.
Carpenter will play FBI Agent Leah Pierce -- a driven, eccentric and blunt woman with a secret in her past -- who has few people skills compared with her partner, Marty. She's called in by Marty's deputy to investigate the disappearance of a young girl and winds up alienating the town with her raw and uncompromising questions.
Scandal's Jenna Bans will pen the script and executive produce the ABC Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Scripted World and Mandeville production. Rob Golenberg, Alon Aranya, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Laurie Zaks, Robert Kievit and Frank Ketelaar also will executive produce. Allison Liddi-Brown will direct the pilot.
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Carpenter wrapped the Showtime serial killer drama last year and said in a September interview with THR that she was ready to go back to work. "I want to find something great, but I'm daring and patient enough to find something that I can give everything to," she said.
She is repped by WME, Untitled and Jackoway Tyerman; her credits also include Quarantine and The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
