Archie Panjabi to Star in ABC Anthology Drama ‘The Jury’

The Good Wife alum Archie Panjabi is ready to return to series television.

The actress has signed on to star in ABC anthology The Jury, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Panjabi, who was among the most sought-after this pilot season, had fielded multiple offers.

The anthology series is described as 12 Angry Men meets podcast Serial. It follows a single murder trial as seen through the eyes of the individual jurors, exploring the biases and experiences that influence their judgment and how their preconceptions change along the way.

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Panjabi will play Kim Dempsey, the drama’s protagonist. The character radiates quiet strength and is described as a force of nature cloaked in a professional demeanor who isn’t interested in making friends but instead in finding the truth. She’s a crusader — someone who’s always looking for a cause. She’s been accused of jumping from cause to cause in the past, and maybe that’s true, but nobody can accuse her of not doing a good job while she was there. When viewers meet Kim in the pilot, it’s been less than a year since she was ripped from the cause she thought she’d champion until her death.

VJ Boyd will pen the script alongside Mark Bianculli, who is set as a co-executive producer. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation grad Carol Mendelsohn will exec produce alongside her Carol Mendelsohn Productions topper Julie Weitz. The Jury is a co-production of Sony Pictures Television (where Mendelsohn is based) and ABC Studios.

The role would mark Panjabi’s return to series television following her 2015 departure from CBS’ The Good Wife. The actress signed a talent deal with studio 20th Century Fox Television that included a development and holding deal in which she would star in a drama pilot. Instead, the actress had a recurring role on Fox/Universal Television’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Panjabi is repped by Gersh.

Keep up with all the latest pickups, castings and eventual series orders with THR’s handy guide to pilot season.