SUPERGIRL Casts Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen

Supergirl has a love interest...and he's none other than Superman's pal!

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the upcoming CBS series Supergirl has cast Mehcad Brooks as classic DC Comics character Jimmy Olsen.  Brooks joins Melissa Benoist in the hourlong drama.

Olsen is described in the article as "a photographer at CatCo.,
where Kara works.  He's the 
salt of the earth and this only makes Kara crush on him even more.  The character has recently been living and working in National City though the reason is still a secret.  As Kara emerges as Supergirl they grow closer."

Brooks, 34, is probably best known as Matthew Applewhite on the ABC series Desperate Housewives and as Eggs on the HBO series True Blood.  In addition, Brooks has appeared in the film About Last Night and on episodes of Necessary Roughness, Alcatraz, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Dollhouse, The Game, Ghost Whisperer and Cold Case.

Created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jimmy Olsen first appeared in Action Comics (vol.1) #6 as an unnamed "office boy" with a bow tie until he was formally introduced as Jimmy Olsen on the Superman radio show The Adventures of Superman in 1940.  Jimmy first appeared as a named character in Superman (vol.1) #13 in 1941, where he became a cub reporter and photographer for the Daily Planet newspaper as a co-worker with Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Perry White.

Brooks will be the latest in a long line of actors to play Jimmy Olsen, beginning with Jack Kelk and Jack Grimes on the Adventures of Superman radio show, followed by Tommy Bond in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman, Jack Larson on the television series Adventures of Superman, Marc McClure in the four Superman films starring Christopher Reeve and the 1984 film Supergirl, Michael Landes and Justin Whalin on the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Sam Huntington in the film Superman Returns, and Aaron Ashmore on the TV series Smallville.

Supergirl will presumably debut on CBS sometime this September or October.