Emily Deschanel became one of television’s most recognizable stars during her 12-year run as Dr. Temperance Brennan on Bones. The Fox crime drama turned the actress into a household name and gave her one of the longest-running lead roles on network television. The show ran from 2005 to 2017 and built a devoted fan base around the will-they-won’t-they chemistry between its two leads. It also had a supporting cast that turned the Jeffersonian lab into one of TV’s most likable workplaces.
Nearly a decade after the finale, Emily Deschanel hasn’t chased another long-running network hit. However, she has stayed steadily busy across television, streaming, film, and advocacy work. Her post-Bones résumé looks more varied than fans might expect from an actress so tied to a single role. She’s headlined a cable drama, led a Netflix limited series, produced and hosted her own rewatch podcast, and appeared in a handful of independent films. Here’s a rundown of everything Emily Deschanel has been up to since Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan closed the book on their final case.
Emily Deschanel Joined TNT’s Animal Kingdom for a Season
Not long after Bones ended, Emily Deschanel took on a recurring role in TNT’s crime drama Animal Kingdom, the adaptation of the 2010 Australian film of the same name. The show followed a family of career criminals in Southern California, giving Deschanel a chance to play something considerably darker and messier than the buttoned-up Brennan. It marked her first significant TV role since Bones and showed she wasn’t interested in simply repeating the same character type. She joined and exited the show in its fourth season, playing a recovering heroin addict named Angela Kane. Her character was killed off-screen.
She Led the Netflix Miniseries Devil in Ohio
In 2022, Emily Deschanel led Devil in Ohio, a Netflix limited series based on Daria Polatin‘s novel of the same name. She played Dr. Suzanne Mathis, a psychiatrist who takes in a teenage girl fleeing a cult, only to have that decision upend her own family’s safety. The eight-episode series leaned into psychological horror rather than the case-solving format Deschanel had spent over a decade in. It also gave her a rare opportunity to headline something outside the crime-procedural genre entirely.
Emily Deschanel Took on Independent Film Roles
Emily Deschanel has kept a foot in film as well, though mostly in smaller, character-driven projects rather than studio blockbusters. She appeared in ReEntry, and in 2023 she took a supporting role in Big Boys, an indie comedy that made the festival rounds. While these projects don’t carry the visibility of a network procedural, they let her work in a different register than the one Bones fans know best.
She Created and Hosted the Boneheads Podcast
In 2024, she launched Boneheads with Emily Deschanel and Carla Gallo, a rewatch podcast where she and her former co-star Carla Gallo. Together, they revisited Bones episode by episode, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and cast reunions along the way. The podcast became one of the more visible ways Deschanel stayed connected to the role that made her famous.
Emily Deschanel Nearly Returned to Network TV in an Eerily Familiar Role
The most notable recent development in Emily Deschanel’s career came in early 2026, when NBC picked up a pilot called Key Witness. The show was reportedly built around a psychologist and criminal profiler named Georgia Ryan. The character was based on the real-life work of profiler Ann Burgess. The show’s premise drew immediate comparisons to Brennan’s forensic work in Bones. However, Key Witness didn’t make it past the pilot stage. NBC passed on the project, ordering four other dramas to series instead. Key Witness would have marked Deschanel’s first lead role on a network series since Bones wrapped.
Her Life Off Screen
Away from acting, Emily Deschanel has remained a committed animal rights advocate. It is a cause she’s supported since going vegan after watching the documentary Diet for a New America. She’s lent her voice to narration work on animal-focused documentaries and continues to speak publicly about the issue. On the personal side, she’s been married to writer-actor David Hornsby, known for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, since 2010, and the couple has two children together. In January 2025, her childhood home in Pacific Palisades was destroyed in the wildfires that swept through Southern California that month, a loss she spoke about publicly in the aftermath.
What’s Next for Emily Deschanel
With Key Witness shelved for now, Deschanel’s next screen role is still an open question, but her track record since Bones suggests she isn’t in a hurry to force it. Between the Animal Kingdom stint, Devil in Ohio, indie films, and the Boneheads podcast, she’s built a career that moves at her own pace rather than chasing the next long-running hit. Given how close Key Witness came to a series order, and how clearly NBC still sees her as leading-lady material, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Emily Deschanel back on network television.
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