Derek Morgan

Morgan is a confident and assertive character, the son of an African American father and Caucasian mother. He has a black belt in Judo, runs FBI self-defense classes, previously served in a bomb squad unit and on the Chicago Police Force. Morgan went to Northwestern University on an athletic (Football) scholarship, but lost his scholarship when his knee was blown out during a game. He earned both his undergraduate degree and his law degree from Northwestern University ("Profiler, Profiled"). Morgan is the man's man of the team. He and his two sisters (Sarah and Desiree) grew up in a tough urban Chicago neighborhood. After the death of his father when he was 10, Morgan struggled somewhat and youthful fighting earned him a juvenile criminal record. He was taken under the wing of a local youth center coordinator, Carl Buford (Episode 2x12 "Profiler, Profiled"). Buford acted as a surrogate father to Morgan and helped Morgan obtain his college football scholarship, but also sexually abused him. In the season three finale, Morgan was told he was being considered to run the New York field office, if the current leader should fail. After the events of the season four opener ("Mayhem") where the head of the New York field office was killed, Morgan was offered the job as the head of the field office, but turned it down, after briefly considering it in "Lo-Fi", when Hotch fails to recommend him for the job, claiming Morgan has trust issues.

Morgan used to regard himself as the right hand man of Jason Gideon before Gideon's departure in the beginning of Season three ("Doubt"). He specializes in crimes pertaining to obsession and also has a very wide knowledge of explosives from his days on the bomb squad. Previously, he worked as an undercover agent in deep cover for eighteen months prior to joining the BAU. Occasionally, he takes delight in flirting with Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia, and the show often alludes to them being best friends. Morgan and Garcia are shown to be extremely close on several occasions: he confides in her that he loves her when she is shot (though we never find out if he means romantically or platonically) and when he trusts her to help him dispose of a live bomb in the season four opener ("Mayhem"). His birthday is June 6, 1973, making him around 35 years old (Episode 2x12 "Profiler, Profiled")

Emily Prentiss

Emily Prentiss is the daughter of Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss who was primarily posted at the United States Embassy in the Ukraine, but has also been posted in some positions in Italy and the Middle East. All this moving around caused her adolescence and family live to be less than enjoyable. Prentiss has expressed extreme disdain for politics as a result. Prentiss apparently lived in Middle East some during her childhood, and she is fluent in Arabic, Spanish, Italian, and some Russian ("Honor Among Thieves" and "Catching Out"). She was placed on the Behavioral Analysis Unit by Section Chief Erin Strauss as a means to end SSA Hotchner's career, but quit instead of helping Strauss ("In Birth and Death") claiming she hates politics. Hotch recognized her on her first day at the BAU from one of his first commands where he set up security clearance for her mother and her employees. She graduated from Yale in 1993, and has been working for the FBI for around ten years, primarily in the Midwest until she joined the BAU--it is unknown what she did between the year she graduated with her undergraduate degree up until the time she joined the FBI.

Emily is a self-described nerd who feels like she can never date a guy for very long before he is either scared away by the job or her nerdiness. She reveals to Morgan that she loves to read Kurt Vonnegut, and he informs her that he does as well, the two of them discussing the Vonnegut book she buys at the end of a case ("Fear and Loathing"). In season three, she offers to become the guardian for a victim who lost her entire family, but the girl's aunt and uncle were located and agreed to let her live with them. In season four, when Jordan Todd - JJ's maternity leave replacement - feels like an outsider, Emily befriends her until JJ returns. Emily is also shown to have a very close friendship with Derek Morgan. She was born at 7:12 AM on October 12, 197- ("Cold Comfort"). She graduated Garfield High in 1989 and apparently rocked a very Cure-esque look in high school ("Tabula Rasa").

Throughout the show it is hinted that Emily has a somewhat tumultuous past, which is expanded upon in "Demonology," where it is revealed that when she was fifteen she had an abortion in Italy, which she believes caused the downward spiral of her friend, Matthew Benton. Benton was recently killed during what was eventually found to be an unsanctioned exorcism, and Prentiss pushes the BAU to look into. She takes on a great deal of responsibility of Benton's death, which causes some dissent between she and Hotch, but seems to bring she and Rossi closer together.

Dr. Spencer Reid

Reid is a genius who graduated from a public high school at age twelve and went to Cal Tech (with Yale as his safety school) at thirteen where he earned three doctorates in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering by the age of twenty one. In addition he holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Sociology and is currently working on another degree in Philosophy (4x08 "Masterpiece"). He has an IQ of 187, an eidetic memory, and can read 20,000 words per minute. It has also been stated that while in high school he suffered severe bullying at the hands of his classmates, including an incident when he was tricked into going to meet a girl he liked behind the school field house, where the entire football team was waiting for him. They stripped him naked and tied him to a goal post. He was humiliated and said nothing until he told Morgan (3x16 "Elephant's Memory"). In his youth, his father left him and his mother, no longer able to deal with the paranoid schizophrenia of Reid's mother, Diana. Reid grew up learning nearly everything he knows from books, with his mother often reading to him. Still, Reid knew the way his mother was living wasn't healthy. When he was eighteen, he had his mother placed in a mental institution, Bennington Sanitarium. She is still there, and Reid has stated that although he sends letters every day, he is afraid to visit her up until season four when we see him visit her to learn about his father. Reid is also worried about the fact that his mother's illness can be passed on genetically; he once told Morgan that "I know what it's like to be afraid of your own mind". He grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada and is very adept at all card games.

Spencer Reid is the youngest member of the B.A.U., and has yet to reach his thirtieth birthday. He has had to shoot and kill two UnSub's during his assignment to the BAU. He has also been held hostage, drugged, and tortured at the hands of an UnSub with multiple personality disorder.

It is made clear that the rest of the team is aware of Reid's drug addiction problem that he obtained after being drugged while he was held hostage, but he seems to have improved over the following episodes, and he apparently has been clean for ten months at the end of season three ("Elephant's Memory").

Reid is the godfather of JJ`s son Henry.

Aaron Hotchner

Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner is the head of the BAU Team. His story revolves around balancing his family life and career. He was the only married team member through the middle of Season 3. His ex-wife, Haley has primary custody of their young son, Jack (who was born in Season 1). Prior to joining the BAU, he was a lawyer, a prosecutor and at one point, SWAT. He sometimes teaches hostage situations and negotiations. He is silent, smiles very little and shares little of his personal life. Like the others, as Season 2 came around, we learned more about Hotch and some of his family life.

As of Season 3, Hotch's professional and personal lives didn't mesh well. With Gideon having resigned from the BAU, Hotch stepped up and filled the role vacated by Gideon. He slowly became the father figure that Gideon was. For the most part, Hotch still kept his personal life out of work. He revealed Haley had filed for divorce and in a rare conversation, shared his feelings about his failed marriage with Rossi (3.17 "The Crossing"). Hotch works late regularly as he has nobody to go home to. Haley filed for a divorce from Hotch in episode 3.11 "Birthright". In episode, 3.14 "Damaged", Hotch signed the divorce papers, giving Haley an uncontested divorce. In the episode "Damaged", we saw a very different side of Hotch. Hotch's anger and frustration over his divorce put him and Reid in a dangerous situation. It also showed Hotch short tempered with everyone around him.

Mandy Patinkin left Criminal Minds

Mandy Patinkin's (Agent Jason Gideon) departure from the show left a big hunger for people t know what actually happened with him.
Many conclusions have come up, but people assures that none are true.
Apparantly, he left because he had disagreements with the directors about letting him do the character the way he did. Other thing was that he felt the show was too violent, or the fact of living around so many things like that drove him nuts.
Fortunately, Joe Mantegna (David Rossi) is replacing him. Is not like I don't care Patinkin left, but it is good to know that somebody else is in the team again.
I hope Mantegna dows HIS character not trying to make it like Gideon.

Alex O'Loughlin's apperance in the show

As we can see Alex O'Loughlin's appearance in Criminal Minds was an outstanding new for most of his followers.
In the show, he played the role of a man whsaw how his father killed his mother and because of that decided to kill women the same way his father did. This didn't las long until he found a boy who he felt identified with.
Personally, I saw the episode and I could see that he did a really good role. He really caught my attention.

Who are in the team NOW?

The BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) team has the following amazing people (from left to right):

Matthew Gray Gubler (Dr. Spencer Reid)

Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss)

Shemar Moore (Derek Morgan)

Thomas Gibson (Aaron Hotchner)

Joe Mantegna (David Rossi)

A.J Cook (Jennifer Jareau, "JJ")

Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia)

This are the ones who appear in the fifth season together.