Rachael Taylor to star in US drama Crisis with Gillian Anderson New role: Rachael Taylor, right, will play an FBI agent alongside Gillian Anderson, left. Australian actress Rachael Taylor is teaming up with the former star of The X Files, actress Gillian Anderson, in a new hostage thriller for TV. Taylor, 29, is the star of a new drama for the US network NBC titled Crisis, about an FBI agent swept up in a hostage drama which involves the children of America's most powerful families. She and Anderson, 45, will both star in the series. It will screen in Australia on Network Ten. Both appeared at an annual television showcase in Los Angeles to promote the series, which launches in the US in March. Australia is expected to follow quickly behind, with Ten hoping to emulate the success of last year's 13-part network drama Under The Dome. In a rare move, NBC is producing only 13 episodes of Crisis for its first season. Most new US dramas are expected to roll out 24 episodes. "I am still a big believer in the power of the one-hour drama," Taylor told US media. [Crisis] was, I felt, something in which I could do something I have never done at all as an actress. [Agent Susie Dunn] is a very fractured lady. Taylor also said she took the role because of the opportunity to work with Anderson; "who I have learned a lot from," she said. The series is co-produced by Australian producer/director Philip Noyce. The series is filmed in Chicago, where the tenth of 13 episodes is currently in production. Taylor and Anderson play estranged sisters in the series, who are brought back together when Anderson's on-screen daughter is one of a group of children kidnapped. Taylor's character is one of the FBI agents managing the crisis. The children are taken from a private Washington college, where wealthy and powerful political families send their children. "The explosion of this situation brings their dysfunctional relationship into the present," Anderson said. One of the great aspects of the show is you have the thriller situation, but there are a lot of relationships in the series that have real and compelling emotions. Taylor said she researched the role extensively, and spent time with real FBI agents. "The thing I learned was the difficulty women have in ascending in federal agencies [and] what was interesting was listening to the dogged determination and focus," Taylor said. For agents, once they get into that analytical way of thinking, they're never off the job. Taylor's Hollywood star has been on the rise since she punched through with a guest role in the long-running medical drama, Grey's Anatomy in 2011. She followed that with roles in two new US series, Charlie's Angels and 666 Park Avenue, which did not secure second seasons. She also has a role in the upcoming film Loft, which co-stars Karl Urban, Wentworth Miller, James Marsden and Eric Stonestreet, due out later this year.