Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Cloak and Dagger, Freeform’s first foray into the Marvel Universe, features a lot of up and coming talent. Series leads Aubrey Joseph and Olivia Holt shine as the titular heroes-in-the-making, delivering star-making performances. But if you’re anything like me (meaning: someone obsessed with NBC’s Must See TV era), there is one supporting player that you can’t take your eyes off of: Gloria Reuben.
Who is Gloria Reuben? Well, on Cloak and Dagger, she’s playing Adina Johnson, Tyrone’s hard-working, super professional mother. Where do you most likely know Gloria Reuben from? She was on ER, people!
Gloria Reuben played physician assistant Jeanie Boulet in the first six blockbuster seasons of ER, some of the most-watched seasons in television history. She started out as a recurring character in Season 1, introduced in an affair storyline with Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle), and became a regular character starting in Season 2.
By the end of Season 2, Reuben’s character made headlines when it was revealed she had contracted HIV from her cheating husband. Jeanie became the highest-profile character on TV with HIV, putting a spotlight on the AIDS epidemic and ultimately leading Reuben herself to become involved in AIDS activism. Reuben left the show early in Season 6, after appearing as a regular in over 4 seasons and 88 episodes. She also earned back-to-back Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1997 and 1998.
Oh, and before ER, she had a supporting role in the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Timecop, which I bring up because you should always be up for watching Timecop.
Between her starring roles in ER and Cloak and Dagger, Reuben appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln in 2013 and more recently had a recurring role on the hit drama Mr. Robot as Elliot’s psychiatrist.
So far, Cloak and Dagger has focused on, well, the teens that will soon be called Cloak and Dagger. But the show has a dynamite dramatic actress on deck in Gloria Reuben, and we’ll surely be seeing more of her in the weeks to come. But if this is the first time you’ve seen Reuben in a while, why not spend the time between C&D episodes bingeing her ER seasons?
And also Timecop. There’s always time for Timecop.
