Dexter alum Julia Stiles has been tapped to star in TNT’s Guilt by Association reports The Hollywood Reporter.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, TNT’s legal drama pilot Guilt by Association has cast its female lead. The casting decision comes following a lengthy search for a female lead after Neve Campbell dropped out of the project based on prosecutor Marcia Clark’s book of the same name. Stiles, who had multiple broadcast and cable pilot offers this season, takes over Campbell’s dropped role.
Guilt by Association follows three women: deputy district attorney Rachel Knight, LAPD detective Bailey Keller (Elisabeth Rohm) and prosecutor Toni LaCollette (Rose Rollins) — each of whom end up embroiled in the same cases.
Stiles will play Rachel, a talented deputy district attorney in the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office who sometimes operates outside the law in order to uphold it. As a member of the Special Trials Unit, Rachel is at her best when prosecuting society’s worst. Driven by compassion but haunted by guilt, Rachel tackles the department’s most difficult cases and does so with humor, an edge, and an “evidence is for pussies” attitude. When the suspicious death of a close colleague throws her own judgment into question, Rachel must rely on her connections and instincts to solve the case and clear her friend’s name. Unorthodox, impulsive, maybe even self-destructive, Rachel will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.
Clark — who famously served as lead prosecutor during the O.J. Simpson trial, co-wrote the pilot with Nashville‘s Dee Johnson. Clark, Johnson and Nelson McCormick serve as exec producers on the drama.
Stiles, who currently stars in Hulu’s web series Blue and who earned Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her guest role as Lumen on Showtime’s Dexter would make her TV series regular debut should Guilt move forward.
In addition, Stiles feature credits include Girl Most Likely, Silver Linings Playbook, the Bourne franchise and the upcoming Five Minutes to Live.
Stiles is repped by ICM Partners, Untitled Entertainment and Sloane Offer.