Here's What Happened To Marlene Lawston After Her Blue Bloods Exit
"Blue Bloods" has been on the air for over a decade, but despite its small screen success, it's faced some major hurdles. For example, financial drama behind the scenes nearly killed the series in 2023. The show's cast and producers actually had to agree to a 25% pay cut, per The Hollywood Reporter, in order to greenlight the show's final two-part season (that'll be season 14, for anyone counting).
"Blue Bloods" has been a hit thanks in large part to its character-driven nature, with fans deeply invested in its various storylines. Interestingly, though, the tight-knit cast (which also includes Donnie Wahlberg and Bridget Moynahan) was originally slightly different. There's actually a fun bit of "Blue Bloods" trivia that fans may not know — when the show first premiered in 2010, Nicky Reagan-Boyle wasn't played by Sami Gayle. Rather, when Nicky made her debut in the show's inaugural episode, she was portrayed by Marlene Lawston.
Lawston, then 12 years old, had just four prior credits to her name. Nevertheless, she was a real up-and-comer, with appearances on "Law & Order" and in the 2007 Steve Carell film "Dan in Real Life." However, she suddenly disappeared from the series, leaving some viewers confused. "Could they really not find a closer lookalike actor?" mused one critic on Reddit. So what caused the abrupt departure? Here's what happened with Marlene Lawston after her "Blue Bloods" exit.
Marlene Lawston traded Hollywood for academia
While no official reason was ever given for Marlene Lawston's sudden departure from "Blue Bloods," it's possible that producers simply decided to go in a different direction and recast the role. However, it seems more likely that the choice was actually made by Lawston herself. That's because the young actor didn't just leave "Blue Bloods" behind -– she quit Hollywood altogether. Despite a promising start in the industry, she hasn't appeared on screen since the show, and it's clear she's found a new passion — one which she's pursuing wholeheartedly.
After high school, Lawston enrolled in New York's prestigious Colgate University, where she pursued a B.A. in molecular biology with a minor in Chinese. She graduated summa cum laude in 2020, having achieved an impressive number of accomplishments. Most notably, she penned an honors thesis about "sensory organ development and regeneration in blind cavefish" (via the University of Oxford), which went on to win her the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and recognition from the Beckman Scholars Program in 2018. The latter is an invitation-only scholarship, described by the organization's website as a "15-month mentored research experience for exceptional undergraduate students."
What's more, Lawston also excelled outside of the classroom. While not studying for herself, she tutored biology courses, volunteered as an EMT, and was even a student coordinator for the Southern Madison County Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
What is Marlene Lawston doing today?
After graduating from Colgate University in 2020 with a long list of academic achievements to her name, Marlene Lawston didn't rest on her laurels. Instead, the former actor decided to continue her studies and enrolled at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry as an MD/PhD student. Here, she shifted from her previous focus (molecular biology) to neurology, and she excelled once again.
In 2020, Lawston received the ultra-prestigious NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship (MD/PhD), allowing her to pursue her MD at the University of Rochester while simultaneously going for her PhD — as if one course of study wasn't enough! Speaking about the honor, she enthused (per the Beckman Foundation), "Thank you to the entire Beckman Foundation for giving me the amazing research and connection opportunities."
As part of the scholarship, Lawston was able to choose between the two storied British institutions, Oxford and Cambridge, and eventually settled on Oxford. In 2022, she officially became an NIH Oxford Scholar MD/PhD and chose to focus her research around neurodevelopmental disorders, pediatric neurology, and genetics. As her student profile on the Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship homepage explains, "She will use human iPSC and organoid models to better understand the genetics underlying developmental neuropsychiatric disorders."