With key roles in two major franchises, actressKatee Sackhoffis arguably the current queen of sci-fi. The Portland, Oregon native made a splash in 2003 with her role as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace on SyFy’s reboot ofBattlestar Galactica,making her an overnight star. With an iconic hit series already on her resume, Sackhoff would later find additional success on both the big screen and television, although her biggest role was yet to come.
FollowingGalactica’send, Sackhoff appeared in a wide variety of film and television roles, highlighting her ability to play strong characters, which won her fans across genres. From horror flicks to comedies to dramas, Sackhoff has built an impressive acting resume. She even played herself in two episodes ofThe Big Bang Theory, solidifying her pop culture icon status.
Sackhoff also had several voiceover roles in animation and video games, including the character Bo-Katan Kryze forStar Wars: The Clone Warsin 2012. In 2020, Lucasfilm cast her toreprise the role inThe Mandalorian, marking the rare occurrence in which a voice actor crossed over to play their character in live-action. Her role was only the latest highlight of a success that has already spanned two decades. Following is a list of Katee Sackhoff’s best performances in film and on television, all ranked.
10Riddick (2013)
In 2013, actor Vin Diesel returned to thePitch BlackfranchisewithRiddick, the third film in the series, released nearly a decade after 2004’sThe Chronicles of Riddick. Sackhoff joined the cast as Dahl, a member of a band of mercenaries out to collect a bounty on Riddick, who doesn’t go down without a fight. The film was a hit with moviegoers, as it recaptured the tone and feel of the original film.Riddickwas also an important film in Sackhoff’s career, as it marked her first sci-fi project sinceBattlestar Galacticaended in 2009, and proved she could still pull off hardcore action roles.
9Tell (2014)
Sackhoff starred with Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us,Rocky Balboa) in 2014’sTell, a crime drama with dashes of dark humor. Sackhoff plays Beverly, the impulsive, unstable wife of Tell (Ventimiglia), and she makes for a pretty good foil, complicating his life with her irrational decisions. When Tell gets mixed up in a bank heist gone wrong, he becomes the key to finding a million dollars lost during the robbery. It makes Tell a target, with everyone from the cops to the robbers to Beverly herself convinced he is hiding a clue to the money’s location. Featuring a solid cast that includes Jason Lee, Robert Patrick, and Alan Tudyk, the film vacillates in tone, but Sackhoff is quite good in a role that’s a departure from her previous work.
Related:Here’s Why Bo-Katan Would Make a Great Mandalorian Spin-Off Series For Disney+
8The Flash (2017-2020)
It’s hard to pull off a comic book-accurate villain without looking ridiculous, but Sackhoff made it look easy. She was aperfect Amunet Blackfor six episodes of the CW seriesThe Flash, becoming a fan favorite despite a limited number of appearances. Amunet was a stewardess-turned-meta-human crime lord, and a formidable foe for The Flash and his team, particularly when she learned he was actually Barry Allen.
7The Education of Max Bickford (2001-2002)
A dramatic series starring legendary actor Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws) seemed like a sure-fire hit when CBS premieredThe Education of Max Bickfordin September 2001. Unfortunately, it couldn’t find an audience, and only lasted one season, although it did give Sackhoff a high-profile role early in her career. Dreyfuss played a widowed professor at a women’s college, and Sackhoff played his daughter Nell, an aspiring musician and a freshman at the college. Though free-spirited and independent, Nell is often a voice of reason for her father, and Sackhoff showed the makings of a future star in her first major role for U.S. network television.
624 (Season 8, 2010)
In the eighth season of24, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is saving the world once again, this time from a Russian plot to assassinate a world leader, while also stopping a terrorist dirty bomb from going off somewhere in America. Sackhoff plays Dana Walsh, an analyst at CTU in New York City. As it turns out, Walsh is a mole for the Russians (there’s ALWAYS a CTU mole, it seems), and that puts her on Jack’s list. Sackhoff is deliciously evil in the role, and her face-off with Jack is one of the more satisfying moments of what was the final season of the landmark series.
5Oculus (2013)
Oculusisa creepy supernatural horrorthriller starring Karen Gillian (Marvel’sGuardians of the Galaxy) as Kaylie and Brenton Thwaites as Tim, two siblings out to destroy a haunted mirror that was responsible for the death of their mother Marie (Sackhoff) and father Alan (Rory Cochrane) when they were children. It’s not as easy as it sounds (you just can’t hammer the thing), and the mirror kills by distorting a person’s mind and possessing them, driving them to kill or be killed.
Through a series of flashbacks, we see Sackhoff’s Marie begin to lose her sanity, and her performance is disturbing, particularly when she shows up (glowing eyes and all) to haunt her adult children. She really sells the film’s premise; after all, a killer mirror doesn’t sound all that scary. This Blumhouse production is very well done, with some excellent performances from the entire cast.
4Girl Flu, (2016)
In the charming indie comedyGirl Flu., Sackhoff plays Jenny, an immature, scatterbrained single mom who is in over her head in raising her 12-year-old daughter Robin (Jade Pettyjohn), who everyone calls Bird. When Bird gets her first period (while wearing white jeans at a school event, no less), it triggers the worst week ever for her, complete with lots of pre-teen angst, pot smoking, and some shoplifting. It makes for a terrible week for Jenny as well, as she struggles to find a way to connect with Bird and help her through this moment in her life.
Sackhoff is equal parts endearing and frustrating, providing a grounded, affecting performance in a drama with a bit of a Judy Blume vibe. She’s a perfect companion to Pettyjohn’s outstanding performance, and the film has some genuinely hilarious moments. That includes a scene in which Sackhoff’s Jenny becomes so frustrated with her daughter, she attempts to leave her at a fire station using the Safe Haven law, which confounds the firemen who are expecting to take in a baby, not an unwanted teen.
3The Mandalorian (2020-2023)
Season 2 ofThe Mandaloriandelved deeper into the backstory of Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) warrior tribe, beyond the small clan led by The Armorer. That included the live-action introduction of Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze, a Mandalorian of royal lineage whose character Sackhoff voiced in theStar Warsanimated seriesThe Clone WarsandRebels. She first appeared inThe Mandalorianin Episode 11 of Season 2, “The Heiress,” where we learnBo-Katan is leading a clan of Mandaloriansintent on reclaiming their home planet of Mandalore. Bo-Katan wants to restore her home planet to its former glory, after the Empire purged and nearly destroyed it.
Related:Why Star Wars Is the Latest in a Long Line of Watered Down Franchises
In Season 3, Mandalore plays a pivotal role in the storyline, as Bo-Katan leads the movement to bring Mandalorians back home to their planet. That gave Sackhoff the opportunity to expand on her character, as she appeared throughout the season.The storyline for Season 4will likely see much more of Mandalore, as Bo-Katan’s destiny plays out, giving Sackhoff an even larger presence in the series. WhileThe Mandalorianmay be Sackhoff’s highest-profile role to date, two other roles gave her the opportunity to give some of her career-best performances.
2Longmire (2012-2017)
On the highly-underrated crime drama seriesLongmire, Sackhoff played Victoria “Vic” Moretti, a deputy sheriff in Absaroka County, Wyoming. Vic left her job as a police detective in Philadelphia after she turned in a crooked cop, and hoped to find a fresh start in Wyoming. Despite the abrupt change in scenery and culture, Vic connects with her co-workers and her widowed boss, Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor), who becomes particularly close to her over time.
Based on Craig Johnson’s popular series of mystery novels,Longmiregave its cast, which included Lou Diamond Phillips and Cassidy Freeman, the opportunity to develop their characters through strong writing and plenty of drama. Fans of the show became particularly invested in whether Sackhoff’s Vic and Taylor’s Walt would ever get together, and while we won’t spoil it, the final episodes are excellent. The series made its debut in 2012 on A&E, but it later moved to Netflix, where all six seasons are now available to watch.
1Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)
When it was first announced thatBattlestar Galacticawould return to TV in December 2003, hardcore fans were dismayed that the Sci-Fi channel (later SyFy) series was a reboot and not a continuation. They were also upset that the changes to the show included a gender-swap of classic characters including Boomer and fan favorite Starbuck, who was played by Dirk Benedict in the original 1978-1979 series. In producer Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining, Starbuck was now Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, with Sackhoff in the role. Any concerns about the show and cast, however, evaporated with the premiere of the miniseries that acted as a pilot, asGalacticawon universal praisefor its innovative twists and gritty take on the original.
Sackhoff herself won praise from fans for her performance, incorporating the brash demeanor from Benedict’s performance while incorporating a deeper, more complex backstory. While some of Sackhoff’s other roles may have allowed her to show her range as an actress, forGalactica, her ability to take one of the most popular characters in modern sci-fi and make it her own is an achievement that cannot be understated.
Even withGalactica’soutstanding cast, which included Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, and Jamie Bamber, it could be argued that the series worked as a whole because of Sackhoff’s Starbuck, who became one of the most popular characters on the show. For that reason,Battlestar Galacticais far and away the best performance of her career.
