Clara Seger


Clara Seger is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama , portrayed by Alana de la Garza.

Background

SSA Clara Seger is a smart, well-traveled and multi-lingual cultural anthropologist and special agent with the FBI's International Response Team. Before rejoining the IRT in 2016, Seger was married to a man named Brad who was a fellow agent and, like her, knew Unit Chief Jack Garrett |Jack Garrett, who she was good friends with. Seger is fluent in 13 languages, including Thai, French, Japanese, and Creole.

Personal life

In 2013, she took a sabbatical from the FBI after her husband Brad died from unknown causes, which Seger struggled to cope with. She later, reluctantly, returned to the IRT in 2016. Brad had previously worked as criminalist for the IRT. Seger rejoined the team in the pilot episode due to her fluency in Thai, before deciding to rejoin the team full time.
Seger is a Christian.

Character development and casting

The character was not introduced in the backdoor pilot on Criminal Minds. She was conceived to replace international law expert and linguist Lily Lambert, portrayed by Anna Gunn. The producers, who felt that a cultural anthropologist was more vital to the show than Lily's legal background, transferred Gunn's character's linguistic skills to Clara Seger. Alana de la Garza said of her character, "She knows everything about everything."