“Blue Bloods” fans know that the toughest cases the Reagan clan faces are the ones that hit close to home. The case featured in the Season 10 premiere, titled “The Real Deal,” is no exception, as Frank (Tom Selleck) finds himself at a crossroads in terms of how best to help his former partner Lenny Ross (Treat Williams) deal with a sticky family matter. The episode also features Lenny’s daughter Carrie, a talented con artist who will seemingly stop at nothing to avoid legal repercussions.
Some viewers of “The Real Deal” may like to know more about who plays the conniving Carrie and what other projects she has been a part of. Carrie is portrayed by Gus Birney, an actor with a handful of notable guest appearances on other popular TV shows and a recurring role on a certain recent Apple TV+ series. She’s also related to a few other stars in the industry that fans may be familiar with.
Gus Birney is on Dickinson and more
Out of all the projects Gus Birney has been in, many TV fans are likely most familiar with her through her work on the Apple TV+ show “Dickinson.” In the show, Birney portrays Jane Humphrey, a fictionalized version of the real-life friend who lived with Emily Dickinson back during the 1800s. The friendship between Birney’s Jane and Hailee Steinfeld’s Emily is a major element of the series across all three of its seasons.
Outside of “Dickinson,” Birney has appeared in a number of other TV series, including several procedurals on the same level of popularity as “Blue Bloods.” To date, she has amassed credits on episodes of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Chicago Med,” “Bull,” and “The Blacklist.” She’s even technically a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having guest-starred in an episode of Netflix’s “Jessica Jones” as a woman named Birdie who gets saved by Rachael Taylor’s Trish Walker.
One fascinating factoid about Birney is that acting runs in her family. Her parents are actually Reed Birney and Constance Shulman, who both have an impressive number of acting credits. Shulman is best known for her role as Yoga Jones in “Orange Is the New Black,” while Reed Birney has appeared in shows like “Titans” and, coincidentally, “Blue Bloods” as a character entirely unrelated to his daughter’s Carrie Ross.
