EXCLUSIVE: William Jackson Harper (The Good Place, Love Life) and Annaleigh Ashford (Happy Face, Welcome to Chippendales) will guest star on the hit CBS dramedy Elsbeth for Season 3. Series star Carrie Preston just revealed the surprise news at the CBS Fall 2025 Virtual Press Day, which can be seen below.
The third season of Elsbeth premieres on Sunday, Oct. 12 (9:30-10:30 PM, ET/9:00-10:00 PM, PT) on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Ashford will appear in a special Halloween-themed episode playing Sharon Norman, a murderous suburban housewife.
Harper will portray the founding director of a New York City poetry journal, desperate for funding.
“From the very beginning, we have worked hard to make Elsbeth a show on which all the best actors will want to appear. Our streak continues as we welcome Annaleigh Ashford and William Jackson Harper to our panoply of brilliant guest stars matching wits with the incredible Carrie Preston,” shared showrunner and executive producer, Jonathan Tolins.
Based on the character featured in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, Elsbeth Tascioni (Preston) is the astute but unconventional consent decree attorney working with the NYPD to catch New York’s well-heeled murderers, utilizing her unique perspective. Wendell Pierce has been a series regular since Season 1, starring as Captain Charles Wallace.
Carra Patterson, who played Kaya Blanke in the first two seasons, will pivot from series regular to guest star in Season 3.
In addition to Ashford and Harper, it was previously revealed that Stephen Colbert will guest star in the Season 3 premiere episode as Scotty Bristol, a late-night host alongside Andy Richter as Mickey Muntz, Scotty’s hilarious but long-suffering sidekick.
In the same episode, Amy Sedaris will play Laurel Hammond-Muntz, the headstrong and devoted head writer and executive producer of the popular late-night talk show Way Late, which Scotty hosts. Lindsay Mendez will also appear as Officer Grace Hackett, a hard-working officer and an aspiring stand-up comic when off the clock. When she teams up with Elsbeth for a case focused on the world of comedy, her knowledge of the business comes in handy.
Elsbeth is produced by CBS Studios and executive produced by Robert King, Michelle King, Jonathan Tolins, Liz Glotzer, Erica Shelton Kodish, Bryan Goluboff and Gail Barringer with Tolins serving as showrunner. The Kings co-created the series.
Emmy and Tony Nominee Harper is soon to be seen starring in the fourth season of the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show. He is perhaps best known for playing Chidi, in NBC’s The Good Place, which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He received a Tony Award nomination for his work on Broadway in Uncle Vanya.
Up next, he will lead the MGM+ series anthology series American Hostage, co-created and executive produced by Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers. Additional TV credits include Netflix’s A Man In Full, HBO Max’s Love Life, which he also executive produced, and Amazon’s The Underground Railroad. Harper is repped by UTA, AC Management and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Ashford is a Tony award-winning and Emmy-nominated actress who is currently starring on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. She was last seen as Melissa Moore in the Paramount+ series Happy Face, also from the Kings, and Hulu’s Welcome to Chippendales, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Additional TV credits include Ryan Murphy’s FX miniseries American Crime Story; Impeachment, Chuck Lorre’s CBS comedy B Positive, Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and The Big C, The Kings’ CBS series Evil, and FX’s Versace: American Crime Story. She will soon be seen in the Fox/Searchlight film Dust with Sarah Paulson. Ashford is repped by CAA, Beth Rosner Management and Schreck Rose Dapello.
