Since her first appearance on “Blue Bloods” in the Season 4 premiere, Officer Eddie Janko has steadily taken on a more important role in the NYPD and the Reagan family, marrying Sergeant Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) in Season 9, Episode 22, “Something Blue.” Eddie (now officially Eddie Janko-Reagan) has appeared in 201 of the 275 episodes of “Blue Bloods,” to date. The actor who plays her, Vanessa Ray, has been steadily building her television resume for twenty years.
Of her stint on the enduring CBS police drama, which has been renewed for a 14th season, Janko told WPRI-TV that she felt lucky to have landed the job. “Oh my goodness,” Ray said.”I had no idea I would be blessed enough to be on a show that would be so well-loved and running so long. It’s a pretty cool gig to get. It’s kind of like winning the lottery as an actor.”
But it took more than luck for Ray to land her spot on “Blue Bloods” — it also took time. Here’s where you may have seen her before her role on the long-running police procedural drama.
Vanessa Ray appeared on Damages with one of her Blue Bloods co-stars
Vanessa Ray’s acting debut was as Christina in the 2003 comedy short film, “The Sparky Chronicles: The Map.” Christina joins her neighbors, brothers Ethan (David A.R. White) and Jeff (Derek Baynham), in the search for their missing dog. Her television debut came six years later on the Jonathan Ames HBO comedy “Bored to Death” as Claudia. Claudia is the daughter of a New York City therapist and seduces Jason Schwartzman’s character at a cocktail party in Season 1, Episode 3.
Ray had a recurring role on three episodes of the musical comedy “The Battery’s Down” as Vanessa and followed that appearance with a seven-episode arc in Season 3 of “Damages.” There is a “Blue Bloods” connection to her “Damages” appearance, as she plays Tessa Marchetti, the love child of Danielle Marchetti (Mädchen Amick) and fraudster Louis Tobin. Tobin was played by Len Cariou, who stars on “Blue Bloods” as former New York Police Commissioner Henry Reagan — Eddie Janko-Reagan’s father-in-law.
While her episodes of “Damages” were airing on FX in 2010, Ray was also starring in the final season of a show that ran for more than five decades on CBS.
Vanessa Ray played Terri Ciccone on As The World Turns
From 2006 until 2010, Vanessa Ray appeared on “As the World Turns” as Terri Ciccone. “ATWT” ran for 54 consecutive years, making it one of the longest-running daytime soap operas in television history.
The legendary soap was critically acclaimed, winning an astounding 62 daytime Emmy awards, and broke some important on-screen barriers along the way. “As the World Turns” introduced daytime television to its first openly gay male character, and also featured television’s first on-screen kiss between two male characters – Luke Snyder (Van Hansis) and Noah Mayer. (Jake Silbermann). The series became such a cultural mainstay that it was parodied by “The Carol Burnett Show,” which featured a recurring skit titled, “As the Stomach Turns.”
Ray appeared in 52 episodes of the series during her four years on the show and added her name to the long list of future A-list stars who made early career appearances on “As the World Turns.” In addition to Ray, this list also includes stars like Julianne Moore, Meg Ryan, Marisa Tomei, and Amanda Seyfried.
Vanessa Ray appeared on eight episodes of Suits
After the cancellation of “As the World Turns,” Vanessa Ray was cast as Jenny Griffith on the USA network drama “Suits.” Jenny is an ex-girlfriend of both Trevor Evans (Tom Lipinski) and Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) and gets twisted up in Mike’s relationship with Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle). Ray appears in eight episodes of “Suits” in Seasons 1 and 2.
Markle, who gave up acting when she married Prince Harry of England in 2018, told Entertainment Weekly the following year that she had great admiration for Ray as a performer and a person. “Vanessa Ray is such a fantastic girl and an amazing actress,” Markle said.
Adams echoed the sentiments of his co-star, saying of Ray, “When Vanessa and I work together, there’s a sort of special spiritual connection that we have… You can probably pick up on it watching the show. You see it on camera. It’s like our souls are speaking to each other. Like, there’s words and we’re having a physical connection, but there’s so much more beneath that.”
Vanessa Ray played Charlotte DeLaurentis on Pretty Little Liars
Fresh off her appearance on “Suits,” Vanessa Ray was cast as Charlotte “CeCe” DiLaurentis on “Pretty Little Liars.” Charlotte appears in 19 episodes, kidnapping and torturing the liars before being killed by Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish).
The series featured numerous twists and shocking surprises. And as Ray told Shine on Media, the fans weren’t the only ones blindsided by some of the twists. In fact, Ray revealed that cast members were often surprised by last-minute script changes and she went on to say that she could not publicly confirm that her character had really met her end. “I’m not allowed to say if I’m dead,” Ray said. “I’ll be around. You’ll see me in the final season, so look out for it.”
When asked to give three words to describe the upcoming final season, she chose, “exciting, bizarre, and informative,” and guaranteed that fans would enjoy the series’ conclusion. 15 of the final 20 episodes have earned a rating of 7.5/10 or better from fans at IMDb, so she appears to have been correct in making that assurance.