Miami Spice: Megalyn Echikunwoke Heats Up the Coroner's Office

• Oct 3, 2008 09:55 PM ET
• by TV Guide News

Bring out your dead!

Following last season's departure of Khandi Alexander from CSI: Miami (Mondays at 9 pm/ET, CBS), there's a new medical examiner getting her hands bloody in Miami: Megalyn Echikunwoke's Dr. Tara Price.

"I definitely was a little bit anxious about it," Echikunwoke says of joining an established cast. "But everyone has been really welcoming and supportive." To help prepare for the role, the actress, who was previously seen on USA's The 4400, spent time with the L.A. County Coroners Office. "It's a gruesome job in reality," she says. "It takes a very special kind of person to want to do something like this." Echikunwoke sees Dr. Price as just that type, despite being an overachiever who came from an affluent Miami family. "She's very fascinated by the science," says Echikunwoke. "She loves the challenge."

In the Oct. 6 episode, Price had better be up for it, as the team struggles to find out who killed a therapist's daughter - by stabbing her in the brain. Don't they know a mind is a terrible thing to waste? - Joseph Hudak