‘Found’: Shanola Hampton Looks for the Missing Who Have ‘Slipped Through the Cracks’

In the opening moments of the chilling new drama Found, a desperate, scantily clad Gabi Mosely (Shameless’ Shanola Hampton) bangs on a metal door asking the man who answers for help. Once inside, it’s clear she’s no damsel in distress: She delivers a right hook to the man and quickly reunites the young boy he’s kidnapped with his grateful parents. All in a day’s work.

“Gabi and her team look for the missing people that the rest of the world seem to not care about,” explains executive producer Nkechi Okoro Carroll. “Gabi finds the ones who have slipped through the cracks and fights to bring them home.”

(Credit: Matt Miller/NBC)

A public relations specialist privately hired in missing-persons cases (and often at least one step ahead of the police), Gabi also brings a very personal skill set to her crisis management work. “Gabi is a victim herself who was abducted [20 years before]; no one came to look for her and she had to save herself. It’s her life’s mission to make sure no one has to go through what she went through,” said Hampton in a pre–actor’s strike interview.

Her four colleagues — compassionate Margaret (Kelli Williams), sharp Zeke (Arlen Escarpeta), fearless Dhan (Karan Oberoi), and fierce Lacey (Gabrielle Walsh) — are equally astute and committed. Expect to learn their own personal ties to these types of heinous crimes.

Related

'The Irrational': Why Jesse L. Martin's Return to NBC Is More Than a Whodunit

And it’s Gabi’s traumatic backstory (through which we meet Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s Sir character) that gets revealed in the show’s eerie flashbacks. “You will see how Gabi was abducted, how she saved herself, and other key moments throughout the first season that help you understand her as a character,” Hampton said. That’s abundantly clear in the first episode’s frightening final scene.

Found, Premieres Tuesday, Oct. 3, 10/9c, NBC

This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2023 Fall Preview issue. For more first looks at fall’s new shows, pick up the issue, on newsstands now.