‘True Detective’s Kali Reis: Get to Know the ‘Night Country’ Breakout & Boxing Champ

True Detective finally returns with a new chapter as Night Country kicks off on HBO beginning Sunday, January 14. Taking on the lead roles for this Alaska-set season are veteran actor Jodie Foster and up-and-coming actor Kali Reis.

While Foster is no stranger to the spotlight, Reis has only been acting onscreen since 2021. Playing detective Evangeline Navarro, she is sure to capture viewers’ attention with her gripping performance. A member of the Seaconke Wampanaak tribe, Reis was born and grew up in Rhode Island as a member of the Indigenous community.

(Credit: Billie Weiss/Getty Images)

But before Reis made her performance debut in the 2021 film Catch the Fair One, she was kicking some serious butt in the ring as a professional boxer. Growing up, Reis began training and had a successful amateur career by the mid-2000s with accolades including the 2007 Rocky Marciano Championship, the 2007 NYC Golden Gloves, and the 2006 New England 154 Championship.

While she took an absence from the sport in 2012 following an accident, Reis managed to make a comeback in 2013 fighting for the WIBA title. In 2014 she won the IBA crown and won her first major world title in New Zealand in 2016 with the WBC World Middleweight title. She also won the WBA, WBO, and IBO female light welterweight titles between 2020 and 2022. Needless to say, Reis is a total badass.

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And she’ll continue to show off her skills with more acting in the future, as she’ll star alongside Alan Ruck, Chaske Spencer, Scott Eastwood, Gil Birmingham, Jason Clarke, Tatanka Means, and more in the film Wind River: Rising, a sequel to 2017’s Wind River.

But for now, she’s being made to feel at home in acting as costar Jodie Foster jokes, in the fun video clip above, with TV Guide Magazine’s Damian Holbrook, “If Kali ever decides to completely commit to acting, I’ll just punch her in the face and she’ll feel right at home.”

And as viewers tune into True Detective, they’ll see that Reis’ skills as a boxer are certainly utilized as Navarro doesn’t pull any punches.

True Detective: Night Country, Premiere, Sunday, January 14, 9/8c, HBO and Max