Terry Kinney got his start during his years as a student at the Illinois State University. Inspired after watching a stage production of Grease, he, along with other then aspiring actors Jeff Perry and Gary Sinise, founded the Steppenwolf Theater Company, which was based in the university. Upon graduation, he joined the group full-time, and started staging productions across Chicago. As one of the company’s artistic directors, he won several awards and also oversaw the transfer of some of their plays to Broadway. As an actor, he also earned a Tony Award nomination in 1990, for the plat The Grapes of Wrath.
Kinney began his screen acting career, however, in the mid-1980s, when he took a small role in the 1985 film Seven Minutes in Heaven. Most of his screen roles to date were in films, although he also took roles in television; his first regular stint was a recurring role in the acclaimed series thirtysomething. In 1997, he joined the cast of the acclaimed HBO prison drama Oz, appearing as Tim McManus, the idealistic manager of the Emerald City unit of the Oswald State Correctional Facility. He stayed in the role until the series concluded in 2003.
More recently, Kinney focused his attention on acting for stage and television. While continuing his work on Broadway and with the Steppenwolf Theater Company, he made guest appearances in shows such as Law & Order and CSI: NY (notably where his Steppenwolf co-founder Gary Sinise is a regular). After taking a recurring role in the short-lived legal drama Canterbury’s Law, he took a regular role in the 2009 crime series The Unusuals as Sergeant Harvey Brown.
At present, Kinney stars appears as recurring character Special Agent Sam Bosco on the CBS series The Mentalist.