Robin Tunney (born June 19, 1972 in Chicago) is an American actress.
She's perhaps best known for the roles of lawyer Veronica Donovan in Prison Break and CBI agent Teresa Lisbon in The Mentalist.
She was previously married to Bob Gosse, and currently is in a relationship with Nicky Marmet. The pair have two children.
Selected filmography:
- Life Goes On (1991) as Mary
- Encino Man (1992) as Ella
- Law & Order (1994) as Jill Templeton
- Empire Records (1995) as Debra
- The Craft (1996) as Sarah Bailey
- Rescuers: Stories of Courage (1998) as Melvina Csizmadi
- End of Days (1999) as Christine York
- Supernova (2000) as Danika Lund
- Vertical Limit (2000) as Annie Garrett
- The In-Laws (2003) as Angela Harris
- The Twilight Zone (2003) as Edie Durant
- Paparazzi as Abby Laramie
- House (2004, pilot) as Rebecca Adler
- Prison Break (2005-2006) as Veronica Donovan
- The Darwin Awards (2006) as Zoe
- Hollywoodland (2006) as Leonore Lemmon
- Robot Chicken (2007) as Madame Razz / Entrapta / Carole Demas
- The Mentalist (2008-2015) as Teresa Lisbon
- Love (2016) as the SLAA woman
- Insatiable (2018) as Brandylynn Huggens
- Monster Party (2018) as Roxanne Dawson
- Horse Girl (2020) as Agatha Kaine
Tropes associated with her work:
- Actor-Shared Background: She's from Chicago, like her character in The Mentalist.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: She did Empire Records precisely because she always wanted to have a shaved head.
- Dawson Casting: Sarah in The Craft is seventeen. Robin was twenty-one.
- Dyeing for Your Art: She shaved her head on screen for Empire Records.
- Method Acting: To portray a seasoned rock climber in Vertical Limit, she spent five weeks learning how to climb.
- Playing Against Type: When auditioning for The Craft, she was actually going for Bonnie and was shocked that she was asked to be Sarah instead."I was like 'I'm a character actress, I can't play The Ingenue lead'."
- Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: She was growing out her hair after the aforementioned head shave by the time The Craft was in production, and had a "very cute" pixie cut that the director liked. However, the studio insisted Tunney wear a wig to play Sarah.