Actress-comedian Janeane Garofalo will join the cast of Fox drama “24” this following season, as a government agent.

Hollywood Reporter announces that the petite, self-declared pessimist wisecrack will co-star on the new Imagine TV/20th Century Fox TV series. Janeane will play a government agent investigating a crisis that Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his team are faced with.

The producers of “24” seem to have been hard at work, refreshing the show for its seventh season. Actress Cherry Jones also signed a deal last month to play President Allison Taylor.

“24” reportedly starts production for its new season on Sept. 10, after two delays due to changes in the story line, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Janeane Garofalo, 42, began as a stand-up comedian in the late 1980s. She appeared on “The Ben Stiller Show” in the early 1990s and had a brief stint on “Saturday Night Live” between 1994 and 1995.

During the ‘90s, she gained popularity with her roles in movies such as “Reality Bites,” alongside Winona Ryder, “The Truth About Cats and Dogs,” with Uma Thurman and Ben Chaplin, “The Cable Guy,” starring Jim Carrey, and “Mystery Men,” with Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria and Geoffrey Rush.

Janeane was a co-host for Air America Radio's new show The Majority Report, alongside Sam Seder, from March 2004 to July 2006.

Her more recent work includes a role in Marc Forster’s 2005 drama “Stay,” starring Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling and Naomi Watts; lending her voice to Bridget the Giraffe in “The Wild” (2006) and to Collette, in this summer’s successful box office hit “Ratatouille.”

Lined up for release are “Southland Tales,” starring The Rock, Seann William Scott and Sarah Michelle Gellar, where Janeane has a cameo, and “Binky,” in which she stars.