She appeared in Surface (2005), the NBC science fiction drama about a mysterious creature emerging from the ocean. Surface ran for one season of fifteen episodes before NBC declined to renew it. She appeared in House, M.D. (2004 to 2012), the medical drama that was one of the signature television hits of the mid-2000s, featuring Hugh Laurie as the brilliant, difficult diagnostic physician. A guest role on House in that period was the kind of credit that helped a working actor’s resume: the show was at or near its peak cultural presence, its guest cast rotated at a high volume, and appearing in it was evidence of a career operating at a credible professional level.
She appeared on Veronica Mars (2004 to 2007), the Rob Thomas crime drama set in a fictional California town that divided its viewership between teen drama and neo-noir mystery. Veronica Mars has a specific place in the television culture of its period: it was critically beloved and never quite reached the viewership numbers its quality deserved, and the people who loved it tended to love it with a specific intensity that outlasted the show’s original run. An appearance on Veronica Mars was, in that world, a credential of a different kind than a guest appearance on a more mainstream show.
She appeared on 24 (2001 to 2010), the Kiefer Sutherland counter-terrorism thriller that had become a significant piece of post-September 11 American television culture. She appeared on Entourage (2004 to 2011), the HBO comedy-drama about a young movie star and his group of friends that was simultaneously a satire of and a valentine to the specific culture of Hollywood celebrity. A guest role on Entourage in those years was, again, a specific credential: the show attracted a large number of guest appearances from people in the entertainment industry playing versions of themselves or characters adjacent to themselves, and the roster of its guest cast in any given season was a rough index of who was visible in Los Angeles at that time.