Nicky Reagan Quits TV – Her Shocking New Path Revealed!

Blue Bloods’ First Nicky Disappeared After One Episode – Here’s Where She Is Now

When Blue Bloods premiered in 2010, it introduced fans to the Reagan family, including a young, outspoken Nicky Reagan-Boyle, originally played by child actress Marlene Lawston. But after just one episode, Lawston vanished from the show and was quietly replaced by Sami Gayle — leaving fans wondering what happened to the original Nicky.

Before her brief role on Blue Bloods, Lawston had already shared the screen with stars like Jodie Foster in Flightplan and Steve Carell in Dan in Real Life. But surprisingly, her Blue Bloods debut turned out to be her final acting credit.

Instead of pursuing Hollywood fame, Lawston walked away from acting entirely and began an impressive academic journey. She graduated from Colgate University, then continued her studies at the University of Rochester’s School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 2020, she earned the prestigious NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a dual Master’s and PhD.

Her focus? Groundbreaking research on genetic disorders. According to Colgate, she’s using stem cell models and genetic testing to better understand duplication/deletion disorders at the cellular level — work that’s been deeply inspired by her own childhood health struggles.

“I was always interested in research that would impact health care,” she said. And while she may have left the spotlight behind, Marlene Lawston is now making a different kind of impact — one that could change lives.