A mysterious little cop show

Janina Gavankar in The Mysteries of Laura.

Animals aren’t allowed in True Blood star’s new series.

A constant supporting presence on innumerable TV shows over the past several years, Janina Gavankar is on the cusp of transitioning from a recognisable face into a known quantity. Following high-profile roles on True Blood (as Sam's doomed shapeshifter girlfriend Luna) and Arrow (as Oliver Queen's doomed Detective ex-girlfriend McKenna Hall), she is starring in TV2's new Debra Messing series The Mysteries of Laura.

Gavankar plays detective Meredith Rose, no-nonsense, by-the-book colleague to Messing's considerably less conventional detective Laura Diamond.

Born in America to an Indian father and a Dutch/Indian mother, Gavankar saw something special in The Mysteries of Laura:

"The truth is that, as a brown girl in Hollywood, people want you to be either a law enforcer or a lesbian, and I've played both proudly. But I really try to hold out and
only do it when it's something interesting and a different spin on what we've all seen
a million times."

Plus having just come off playing a 1000-year-old witch (on The Vampire Diaries), and still best known by many for the True Blood role, she relished the chance to do something a little less fantastic.

"Pilot season comes around. You've got a bunch of pilots that you hope to maybe get, and I said no to a lot of things the first time.

"Then suddenly this funny thing comes in, and it's very serious, and there is an awesome mystery every week.

"We're doing Columbo. I loved Columbo, growing up. Then we also get to be funny. It was a good thing, and I also want to be human for once in my life. If they turn into another freaking animal ... no, I'm just kidding."

As Gavankar sees it, The Mysteries of Laura presents a more personal story than most modern cop shows.

A modern-day Columbo is how Janina Gavankar, far right, describes The Mysteries of Laura.

"The CSIs of the world - you never go home with those characters. In the traditional police procedural as it stands right now, you never go home with these people, You never get to really know them. They're always on the job and clenching their jaws and taking off their sunglasses.

"The flipside of it is the comedy cop shows that are about a bunch of chuckleheads who are terrible at their job. So it's neither of the things that we know. "

The whodunit side of the series also sparked a nostalgic response in the actor. "When I was in junior high I had one of those murder-mystery party things with my friends. You buy a little kit, everyone comes over and they all dress up as certain characters.

"Now I'm getting paid to do the exact same thing. And you're all invited."

The Mysteries of Laura screens Mondays at 8.30pm on TV2.