Tom Ellis Reveals Which of Former ‘Tell Me Lies’ Costars Need to Appear on His ‘FBI’ Spinoff ‘CIA’
Tom Ellis has made the move from Tell Me Lies to the FBI spinoff CIA — and he already has ideas about which of his costars should join him.
“They’re all so good,” Ellis, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly about his former Tell Me Lies scene partners. “But I think because of this season and the way this season is going, I’m really excited about the work that Spencer [House] is doing as Wrigley.”
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Ellis continued: “He’s so brilliant. I’d welcome him onto any set that I was working on because he’s got so much to give.”“Tell Me Lies was practice for CIA. Tell Me Lies is basically what Colin does all the time,” Ellis quipped to Us. “It’s really weird going from a character on Lucifer who prided himself on never lying to now playing someone who basically exclusively deals in lying. Because of what Colin does and because of how long he’s done it for, his sense of what reality is is probably a bit warped by now.”
Ellis was thrilled by the challenging character work, adding, “He chooses and hand picks what he tells people about himself. Sometimes you realize that that changes and you think about how reliable is this? How reliable is this source? But it’s always about self preservation. For the CIA, they can’t let anyone into their inner circle and so that’s why it becomes a bit of a stumbling block for [Nick Gehlfuss’] Bill.”
FBI debuted on CBS in 2019 and follows the agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York City. The network followed that up with FBI: Most Wanted, which aired from 2020 to 2025, about the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Fugitive Task Force. There was also the FBI: International spinoff about the International Fly Team that ran for four seasons before concluding in 2025.
In April 2025, CBS gave CIA a straight-to-series order starring Ellis and Gehlfuss. According to the official synopsis, CIA centers on “two unlikely partners — a fast-talking, rule-breaking loose cannon CIA case officer and a by-the-book, seasoned and smart FBI agent who believes in the rule of law.”