Nicki Aycox

Nicki Lynn Aycox (born May 26, 1975) is an American actress known for her role as Minxie in Jeepers Creepers 2, and her role as Meg Masters in Supernatural.

Life and career

Aycox was born in Hennessey, Oklahoma. She has a younger brother, Steve. She speaks fluent German according to an interview in Jack magazine. She has Native American ancestry. She began performing at a young age. She played the piano and sang in beauty pageants as a child. Some of her roles include Syl on the series Dark Angel, Stella Vessey on the dramedy Ed, a stint as the unreliable sister of Detective Rush on the series Cold Case, and the first actress to appear on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Captain Jim Brass' treacherous, drug-addicted daughter, Ellie.

In 2003 she played Minxie Hayes, a psychic cheerleader, In Jeepers Creepers 2. The sequel to the 2001 horror film Jeepers Creepers. It received negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 23% of 122 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "Jeepers Creepers 2 is competently made, but it doesn't have the scares of the original."^[1] However, the film was a box office success and the worldwide gross was $63,102,666.^[2]

From July to October 2005 she played PV2 Brenda "Mrs. B" Mitchell on Over There. The series followed a unit of the United States Army's Third Infantry Division on its first tour of duty in Iraq, and chronicled the war's effects on the soldiers' families in the United States. FX announced on November 1, 2005 that the show would not be returning due to declining ratings.

In 2006, she had a role on Criminal Minds as Amber Canardo, a sociopathic serial killer in the episode "The Perfect Storm". Also that year she portrayed Meg Masters, a recurring antagonist, in the first season of the WB (now CW) series Supernatural. Executive producer Kim Manners had previously directed an episode of the series Over There featuring Aycox, and hand-selected her for the role of Meg.^[3] On developing the character and her storyline, Aycox noted that they "really just felt [their] way through" and described it as "very trial and error".^[3]

Given free rein over the character by production, Aycox also tried to make Meg "very stylized". The character was later killed off in the finale, a decision that Manners disagreed with because he thought that she had potential to be a "great nemesis" for the Winchesters.^[5] Agreeing that Meg was "a really formidable adversary" for the Winchesters, Kripke chose to bring her back to the series later on.^[6] Later when the character was brought back the writers wanted Aycox to again reprise the role but ultimately cast Rachel Miner for storyline purposes. The character received generally mixed reception from critics, with many favoring Aycox's version. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune deemed Aycox's incarnation of Meg a "good addition to the show" who "[spiced] things up a bit", recalling that she had been "shocked" when Meg was revealed to be a villain at the end of her introductory episode. Ryan enjoyed how the character toyed around with the Winchesters, and thought the human Meg's final moments were "well done".^[7] Laura Prudom of the Huffington Post felt Aycox portrayed the character with a "lot more subtlety" than Miner and preferred Meg's darker appearances prior to Miner.^[8] John Kubicek of BuddyTV and Sandra Gonzalez of Entertainment Weekly also favored Aycox's portrayal of the character.^[9][10]

In 2007, she appeared in the thriller film Perfect Stranger, alongside Halle Berry and Bruce Willis. Aycox played the small role of a woman trying to blackmail a wealthy advertising executive. Perfect Stranger was critically panned, with an 11% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 138 reviews.^[11] She next co-starred in The X-Files: I Want to Believe, the second feature film installment of the The X-Files franchise. Filming began in December 2007,^[12] and finished on March 11, 2008.^[13] The film premiered on July 23, 2008 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream film critics, reported that there were "mixed or average" reviews, with an average score of 47 based on 33 reviews.^[14] Rotten Tomatoes reported that 32% of 161 listed film critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.8 out of 10.^[15] However, the film was a box office success, grossing a total of $68,369,434.^[16] Also that year, she appeared in the thriller film Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead. The film was released on DVD on October 7, 2008 in the United States and opened at #9 at the DVD sales chart, making $1,492,635 off 62,000 sold DVD units. As per the latest figures, 200,000 units have been sold, translating to $4,307,361 in revenue. This does not include Blu-ray sales/DVD rentals.^[17]

In July 2009 she began to play Jaimie Allen (an undercover LAPD police officer) in the TNT action/drama series Dark Blue.^[18] It ended its run on September 15, 2010.^[19]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

• Nicki Aycox at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview for Jeepers Creepers II