Exclusive: Esai Morales Joins Criminal Minds as New Section Chief

The BAU has a new boss.
NYPD Blue and Caprica star Esai Morales has joined Criminal Minds as the new BAU section chief, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.
Morales will recur as Matt Cruz, a longtime FBI agent who gets promoted to work with the BAU and has a previous professional relationship with JJ (A.J. Cook) that will be revealed as the season progresses. Might they have worked together during her stint in the Department of Defense?

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Morales will make his first appearance in the third episode of Season 9. Showrunner Erica Messer previously told TVGuide.com that Hotch (Thomas Gibson) would be acting section chief for the summer in the wake of the death of their former boss Strauss (Jayne Atkinson) in the Season 8 finale.Besides NYPD Blue and Caprica, Morales has appeared in Law & Order: SVU and Burn Notice, and co-starred in La Bamba.Season 9 of Criminal Minds premieres Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 9/8c on CBS.(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS.)