For three seasons of 24 Elisha Cuthbert was the daughter in peril, sent into the city to be chased, and for years afterwards that is what she was known for. Comedy, when it came, let her find a voice the thrillers never asked for.
Fi1m perspective
The first thing Kim Bauer does in 24 is climb out of a bedroom window. Her father spends the rest of the day on the phone trying to get her back, and Elisha Cuthbert spends it in the hands of one wrong person after another. She was cast shortly after moving to Los Angeles at seventeen, and she stayed in the main cast for three seasons. The first season works because the show is really about the calls between the office and the house, and Kim is one end of the line. After that the writers needed a hostage every year, and for two seasons she was it, sent into the city to be chased by whatever they had to hand. There is a stretch of the second season involving a wild animal that we would not defend to anyone, and we were embarrassed for her rather than by her: no actor can do much when the script has run out of places to put her.
Films came while the series was still running, and they used her the same way. In Old School (2003) she is Darcie, the girl Mitch wakes up beside after the party and then learns is his boss's daughter and still at school. Todd Phillips plays the discovery as a wince for Mitch. We did not laugh, and Cuthbert is given nothing to do except be the reason for the wince. The Girl Next Door (2004) made her a lead and drew complaints that the part, a former adult-film actress, was a gimmick; she has said she pushed hard for it because she was known as "the girl on 24, the daughter that was in peril". House of Wax (2005) followed, with long captivity scenes that are the most physical work of her early career. Both sit outside what we have reviewed, so we will only note the pattern. For most of the 2000s she was cast as something that happens to a man, and then has things happen to her.
The turn is Happy Endings (2011–2013), where she played Alex Kerkovich in an ensemble comedy for three seasons and those who watched it noticed a comic voice nobody had asked for on 24. Recurring work on The Ranch (2016–2020) kept her in comedy. She stepped back from acting for several years after 2020 and returns in Every Year After (2026).
If you are starting with 24, and you should, watch the first season for the phone calls and stop before the second decides what to do with Kim. The comedy is where she went once she was allowed to choose, and it is a fair guess that is where she will stay.
Biography
Elisha Ann Cuthbert (also credited as Elisha Ann Cuthbert Phaneuf) is a Canadian actress. Born on 30 November 1982 in Calgary, Alberta, she began her career as a child performer, appearing as an extra on Are You Afraid of the Dark? and co-hosting the children's series Popular Mechanics for Kids from 1997 to 2000. She made her feature-film debut in the Canadian drama Dancing on the Moon (1997) and took a lead role in Airspeed (1998).
After moving to Hollywood in 2001, Cuthbert was cast as Kim Bauer on the Fox series 24, appearing as a main cast member in the first three seasons and in recurring roles in later seasons including 2005, 2007 and 2009. She has also appeared in films including Love Actually (2003), Old School (2003), The Girl Next Door (2004) and House of Wax (2005), and starred as Alex Kerkovich in the ABC comedy series Happy Endings (2011–2013).
