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Melina Kanakaredes’ Latest Primetime Role Has a Surprising Connection to her Guiding Light Character

Published by
Tina Charles

Soap alum Melina Kanakaredes starred as Eleni Andros Cooper on Guiding Light from 1991 to 1995. Eleni was the sweet but tough Greek goddess who beguiled Frank Cooper and Alan-Michael Spaulding. After Kanakaredes left GL, she experienced primetime TV glory with Providence and CSI: NY. But it’s her latest guest star appearance that gave us nostalgic vibes of her soap days.

Primetime Success Story

It has been 30 years since Melina Kanakaredes appeared on the iconic CBS soap Guiding Light. Since her days on daytime TV, she has spent much of her time in leading roles and picking up high-profile guest-starring gigs.

In addition to Providence and CSI: NY, her post-GL credits include the late great HBO prison series Oz, an episode of the Hawaii Five-0 reboot, and five episodes of CBS’s Extant, a two-season sci-fi drama starring Halle Berry and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

The Daytime Emmy-nominated actress also appeared in 15 episodes of the Fox medical drama The Resident, playing Dr. Lane Hunter. The show, which went off the air in 2023, is currently enjoying a popular run on Netflix. Kanakaredes’ episodes aired during seasons one and two.

More recently, the soap veteran guest-starred in three episodes of Showtime’s Billions.

READ THIS: Here’s how DAYS recently resurrected GL.

The Eleni Factor

In the latest episode of NCIS, she played Eleni Kostakis, a Greek baker who was caught up in a scheme involving drug dealers. She also had a connection with Gary Cole’s character, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent Alden Parker.

When Eleni’s employee was murdered, and Parker realized that she was in trouble, too, he and his team investigated the case. But all episode long, we kept thinking about how the actress’s character was Eleni, the same name as her GL character from years ago.

What connected the two of them was their Greek heritage. On GL, being Greek was everything to Eleni, and it played a part in her storylines. At one point, she couldn’t get back into the U.S. because she was illegal. So, she ended up having to marry Alan-Michael (Rick Hearst) even though she was in love with Frank Cooper (Frank Dicopoulos).

READ THIS: GL alums talk about the possibility of a reboot.

Potential for More NCIS Eleni

On NCIS, Kanakaredes and Cole shared some serious chemistry, enough for us to hope and pray that the CSI: NY alum would come back for more.

And wouldn’t you know it, the show’s executive producer, Steven D. Binder, recently talked to TV Insider about the potential for that to happen. “The original plan was just the one episode, but she was so great that we have a board of people who, let’s see if we can bring this person back. So it’s just the one episode planned, but she’s certainly someone we’d love to see again.”

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Published by
Tina Charles
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