Noah Bean Is Thankfully Nothing Like His '9-1-1' Character

Fall television is back in session, and that means that 9-1-1 is picking up right where it left off. At the end of Season 4, Eddie (luckily) survives, and Athena makes more badass moves into making her relationship work with Bobby and detaining a former LAPD SWAT member. But it looks like a former demon from her past is coming back to haunt her in Season 5.

According to promos as well as IMDb, the first episode of Season 5 will bring back Noah Bean. This might be the impetus behind a new arc for Athena (Angela Bassett) since she’s basically come full circle. So who is Noah Bean’s character on 9-1-1? And why does he look so familiar?

9-1-1 deals with a lot of criminals, but there’s almost no one worse than a serial rapist … especially one who assaults Athena. In Season 3, Episode 16, titled “The One That Got Away,” Athena comes head to head with Jeffrey Hudson, played by Noah Bean. When a drone causes a father and son to get into a bike accident, it leads Athena to the drone operator, who turns out to be Jeffrey.

But Jeffrey is not an innocent drone operator; he uses his drone to spy on potential victims, and then film himself raping them. It’s one of the most harrowing villains we meet in 9-1-1, and the fact that Athena has to deal with him makes his stark contrast to her badassery even crazier.

In the following episode, and penultimate episode of the third season of 9-1-1, Athena actually tracks down Jeffrey. And what she finds is not pretty.

She learns in detail about his exploits as he physically assaults her in what turns out to be a brutal fight, leaving Athena hospitalized. The worst part is when the team can hear everything happening to Athena over their radio system, but still can’t get to her.

Luckily, Athena survives, but she will likely have to relive her trauma in Season 5. In promos leading up to the season, we can see that Jeffrey’s trial will definitely be significant, at least to Athena.

She may have to testify, which could cause her to understand her trauma from the incident more deeply. Being that she is such a stoic woman, that might be something she’s trying to avoid, but with Jeffrey’s trial in tow, she’ll no longer be able to do so.

Despite Jeffrey being one of the worst types of people we can imagine, he’s brilliantly depicted by Noah Bean. It takes a lot of challenging work to play someone with such a disturbing arc, so it’s definitely okay to be a fan of Noah's.

The actor is most popular for his three-season role on Nikita as Ryan Fletcher.

However, Noah’s been acting in television since 2001 with his first obligatory Law & Order guest-starring role to kick off his career. Since then, he also nabbed recurring roles on Damages as David Connor and Once Upon a Time as Daniel, so Noah definitely has a wide range of character skills.

Movie fans might also recognize him from The Pill, the popular indie movie in which he played Fred. So can we expect to see more of Noah?

We’ll definitely see more of him in 9-1-1, but he also has some exciting upcoming projects: Invasion and an untitled Nick Wootton and Jake Coburn project. And when he’s not acting, he still seems to be doing pretty well.

Noah currently lives in NYC with his wife, Turner & Hooch actress Lyndsy Fonseca, and 3-year-old daughter, Greta Lilia Bean… so by all means, he’s nothing like his 9-1-1 character.

New episodes of 9-1-1 air Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.