You love Maggie Lawson as the Boston Police Department’s superintendent, Sarah Silver, on Boston Blue but did you know the actress had a thorough acting career ahead of the series? Lawson has been in several of your favorite shows and is even a regular on the Hallmark channel.

Before her crime-solving days began, Lawson was starring on shows such as Psych and It’s All Relative, and she even had one-episode stints in several extremely popular series. Learn more about Maggie Lawson’s early career, how she got into acting and what Hallmark movies you might know the actress from.

Maggie Lawson was a reporter

Lawson’s love for the arts began at an early age, as she began performing in local theater productions and doing dinner theater at age 8. But just a couple of years later, she dipped her toe into reporting and even became a youth correspondent for her local FOX affiliate station, WDRB Fox 41 Kid’s Club, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Her tenure there began at age 10 when she filed news reports that were targeted towards children, remaining in that position for about six years before leaving for Los Angeles to pursue acting. At age 16 in 1996, she booked her first guest spot on the TV show, Hang Time

She appeared on several major TV series

Lawson isn’t only known for her long-standing roles in Psych and her Hallmark films—she also made appearances on some extremely popular shows. Following her first role, Lawson snagged a spot in Unhappily Ever After (1996-97), Step by Step (1997) and Cybill (1997).

Within the next couple of years, Lawson became a guest star on Boy Meets World (1997), Home Improvement (1998), Felicity (1999), Family of Rules (1999), ER (1999), Party of Five (1999) and Smallville (2002).

She spoke about her time on ER, remembering a slightly embarrassing moment for her younger self.

“I was hooked up to all the machines when Anthony Edwards [who played Dr. Mark Greene on ER] walks by and says hello, and moves on,” she shared. “Then someone comes up to me and is, like, ‘Do you have a thing for Anthony Edwards? Because your pulse went through the roof when he walked up.’ My pulse ox was on!”

Lawson was psyched for ‘Psych’

 

It wasn’t long before all of her minor roles led to something bigger. In 2006, Lawson booked Psych as Juliet O’Hara. She didn’t join the cast until the second episode, as the character was already cast with Anne Dudek. However, when Dudek got another series, Lawson stepped in.

“I mean, where do I start with the memories?” Lawson said of her time on the show. “I came on after the pilot—Anne Dudek did the pilot, and I think she got on Mad Men after, so she’s fine. But yeah, I had heard of James Roday [who played Shawn Spencer], I had heard he was very funny. And then, of course, [with] Dulé Hill [who played Burton Guster], I was, like, ‘Holy s–t.’ But when I went from seeing what was on the page to seeing what Roday and Dulé were doing off the page, I was, like, ‘Ohhh, this is magic. We’re on something magical right now.’”

The actress remained on the series until its end in 2014 and has since returned for the 2020 movie, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home. She is currently hosting the podcast, The Psychologists Are In, a Psych rewatch podcast, along with former co-star Timothy Omundson.

Lawson’s Hallmark career

 

After her days on Psych, Lawson joined the Hallmark crew and has since starred in five of the channel’s movies. She began that chapter in her acting career in 2017 with the film My Favorite Wedding, as Tess, alongside actor Paul Greene. Later that year, Lawson starred in the Hallmark mystery movie Christmas Encore, alongside Brennan Elliot.

In 2019, she booked The Story of Us with Sam Page and Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy, reuniting with Paul Greene. Lawson later starred in a Great American Family movie, A Lot Like Christmas, with Christopher Russell, but eventually found her way back to Hallmark in the movie Sugarplummed in 2024.

Now, Lawson is killing it as the Boston PD superintendent, Sarah Silver, on Boston Blue, a character Lawson has described as “composed, compassionate and fair.”

Catch the star in the CBS series every Friday night at 10 PM ET/PT on CBS or catch it the next day on Paramount +!