Matthew Gray Gubler to star in Einstein pilot for CBS

CBS in the US has announced that Matthew Gray Gubler – star of long-running series Criminal Minds — has been cast as the titular lead of forthcoming crime procedural, Einstein (working title).

The US pilot of acclaimed Seven.One Studios International drama series Einstein is set to launch as part of the 2025-26 broadcast season; and hails from the creative team behind hit crime procedural Monk: creator/executive producer Andy Breckman and director/executive producer Randy Zisk.

In it, brilliant but directionless, the great grandson of Albert Einstein (Gubler) spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad-boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases.

Gubler’s Lew Einstein is a popular professor at Princeton … when he actually shows up for class. Irreverent and misguided, Lew’s genius and famous name weighs heavily on him, but using his gift to help solve homicides may — finally– offer his life some direction and purpose.

While very different as personalities, Lew Einstein shares scientific background with Gubler’s beloved Criminal Minds character Spencer Reid, who also is a genius and holds PhDs in mathematics, chemistry and engineering.

Breckman, who wrote the Einstein pilot, and Zisk, who will direct it, executive produce alongside Intrigue’s Tariq Jalil; Rose Hughes, Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia and Laura Beetz for Seven.One Studios International. Matthew Gray Gubler will also produce.

This marks Gubler’s first TV role since a recurring stint on Hulu comedy Dollface. He also is a children’s book author and illustrator, with his second book, The Little Kid with the Big Green Hand, published in 2023.

Originally written by Martin Ritzenhoff and Matthias Dinter based on a 2015 movie from the same team, Einstein series was a hit for SAT.1 acrorss three seasons. It starred Tom Beck as Professor Dr Felix ‘Einstein’ Winterberg and Annika Ernst as police commissioner Elena Lange. It was produced by Zeitsprung Pictures.