Criminal Minds was upended by off-screen drama 10 years ago when news of Thomas Gibson’s firing from the CBS show broke on August 12, 2016.
The ouster came about two weeks after an on-set incident in which Gibson, who played Aaron Hotchner, allegedly kicked Criminal Minds co-executive producer Virgil Williams, according Variety. The magazine later reported that a 2010 incident in which Gibson allegedly shoved an assistant director and a 2013 DUI arrest — after which the actor pleaded no contents to contest to alcohol-related reckless driving — contributed to ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios’ decision to fire him.
Since then, Gibson has been keeping a relatively low profile, but the TV star — also known for his roles on Chicago Hope and Dharma & Greg — has resurfaced online and on stage recently.
Gibson’s last onscreen acting role came in 2019.
Since his Criminal Minds firing, Gibson has only added two more acting credits to his filmography. He voiced the character Joseph in the 2017 drama film Axis, directed by Criminal Minds’ Aisha Tyler, and he starred as Colonel Branson in the 2019 action film Shadow Wolves.
Still in the pipeline is a completed film called The Writer’s Bible, in which Gibson plays an author who “gets more than he bargained for” during a retreat to a remote Texas cabin. Gibson not only plays the writer but co-wrote the script with director J.P. Gibson (presumably the actor’s son J.P.) and served as an executive producer.
He’s been sticking to theater work recently.
In 2024, Gibson returned to his off-Broadway roots with a starring role in a production of the Charles Busch play Ibsen’s Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy at New York City’s 59E59 Theaters. “I hadn’t done a play in a very, very long time, and yet, that was what constituted most of my experience up until I went to Los Angeles, where one series led to another,” he told TheaterMania at the time. “I wondered, maybe irrationally, if I still knew what to do if I were to do a play, and I wanted to put to rest any irrational fears about not knowing what to do.”
Then, in 2025, Gibson starred in a production of the David Mamet play Henry Johnson at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater. In an interview on Chicago Today, Gibson said his theater experience the prior year had quelled any stage fright. “It was great, and I had a wonderful time,” he said. “So I’m feeling like being on the boards again is a good thing.”
He’s also active on Cameo.
Gibson has been connecting with fans on Cameo, with personalized videos starting at $200 a pop. For those fans who pony up, Gibson has been dispensing lots of Criminal Minds trivia. As seen in an Instagram montage. Gibson revealed, for example, that the show was originally titled Quantico, that a producer thought he was playing Hotch “a little too dark,” and that the powers that be were looking for a male actor to play Garcia before Kirsten Vangsness came in and “knocked it out of the park.” In another clip, Gibson revealed that “a really, really bad computer-generated bird” seen in Season 1 had him, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Lola Glaudini sure that the show would be canceled.
