When Archie Panjabi debuted on “The Good Wife” as Kalinda Sharma, she didn’t know she was about to create a type — the diminutive, dark-eyed agent provocateur from a foreign land. As Kalinda kicked or sometimes used a baseball bat to make her point with someone who was not seeing things her way, a light went off in the heads of television casting directors: “Get me a Kalinda!” If Panjabi could win an Emmy, maybe these descendants of Kalinda can also.
Sarah Shahi (Sam Shaw, “Person of Interest”)
Shahi (“Fairly Legal”) did a guest spot on the CBS hit last season as a government assassin who left a pile of dead bodies in her wake. This season, she joins the show as a series regular. She may not have Panjabi’s colorful array of zip-up leather jackets, but she does have the rockin’ body, the no-nonsense attitude and the same allure.
Parminder Nagra (Meera Malik, “The Blacklist”)
Nagra (“ER”) actually had top billing over Panjabi in the soccer romance “Bend It Like Beckham.” Now, she’s walking in Panjabi’s shadow on the new NBC series “The Blacklist” as Agent Meera Malik. “The Blacklist” is about a bunch of FBI agents who are taking their cues from a wanted criminal, Raymond “Red” Reddington (played by James Spader), who knows where to find the terrorists. Nagra joins the series. Malik has been added to Reddington’s private security detail.