Kelsey Asbille played Luke Grimes‘ onscreen wife, Monica, in Yellowstone — but where is the actress now ahead of the Kayce Dutton spinoff, Marshals?
Before booking the role of Monica on Yellowstone, Asbille got her start on Disney as Mikayla in Pair of Kings. She also had a recurring role as Gigi on One Tree Hill before scoring the character of Tracy on MTV’s Teen Wolf from 2015 to 2016.
Asbille crossed paths with producer Taylor Sheridan on the set of his film Wind River, which paved the way for her role as Monica Long Dutton on Yellowstone. Over the show’s five seasons, Asbille shared scenes with Grimes — who played her onscreen husband, Kayce — and the rest of the fictional Dutton family.
“I love that when you meet them, they’re both kind of outcasts and they’ve given up so much for each other,” Asbille exclusively told Us Weekly in 2022 about Monica and Kayce. “But Lord have mercy, I would love for them to have an easier go at life.”
What Does Monica’s Absence From ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff Mean? Drama Explained
She continued: “I think [Monica’s] strength is her softness and her compassion and her empathy and her willingness to just — no matter what she faces, she keeps her head up and she keeps going. And I think that that’s all you can do. And so I think that’s definitely something I look up to in her.”
Despite Monica still being alive when Yellowstone came to an end in 2024, Asbille doesn’t appear to play a role in Grimes’ Yellowstone spinoff, Marshals. Keep scrolling to see where Asbille has been since Yellowstone came to an end — and what has been said about her possible involvement in the CBS show:
Who Did Kelsey Asbille Play on ‘Yellowstone’?
Asbille worked with Sheridan on his 2017 film, Wind River, about a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation. They reunited on Yellowstone where Asbille was cast as Monica Long Dutton — a role she played through the show’s entire run from 2018 to 2024.
“I love the people that we get to work with on the show,” she gushed to Taste of Country in 2022 while crediting Sheridan for creating a positive culture on set. “I really love these people, and I think also because he always — he brings us back.”
She continued: “There’s a certain loyalty and familial quality to all of his sets that, even though we are covering pretty tough subject matter, we’re in it together. I would say we have a lot of fun off set as well, to make up for the dark themes.”
Why Was There Controversy Surrounding Kelsey Asbille’s Role on ‘Yellowstone’?
Asbille identified herself as being of Cherokee descent when she was cast as Monica, who is Native American.
“This role, more than any other, it’s in my blood,” she told The New York Times in 2017, which triggered actor and producer Sonny Skyhawk to inquire with the Cherokee Nation’s Tribal Enrollment Office about Asbille, who stated that they had no record of Asbille and couldn’t confirm that she was a Cherokee descendant.
The New York Times reporter Kevin Noble Maillard told BuzzFeed News later that year that Asbille told him she was Cherokee but that he got the more specific lineage from The Weinstein Company’s press materials. Asbille allegedly told him that “she didn’t grow up in a Native community” and never stated that she was an enrolled member.
Asbille, for her part, has not publicly addressed the controversy.
Where Did Kelsey Asbille’s Character Monica End Up in the ‘Yellowstone’ Series Finale?
Yellowstone introduced viewers to the fictional Dutton family, who own the largest ranch in Montana. After initially being a teacher at a local school on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, Monica went on to become a professor at Montana State University while weathering life with Kayce, who moved them back to the Yellowstone Ranch while figuring out a past divide with dad John (Kevin Costner).
Following John’s death, Kayce, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, became the new owner and operator of the Yellowstone Ranch. Kayce and Monica ended the show alive — and together with son Tate (Brecken Merrill) — before Marshals checked back in on them.
Signs That ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff ‘Marshals’ Is Hinting at Monica’s Death
What Has Kelsey Asbille Been Up to After ‘Yellowstone’?
Asbille booked the leading role in Netflix’s film Don’t Move alongside Finn Wittrock. She also had a recurring role in season 4 of Fargo.
The actress hasn’t posted on social media since Yellowstone‘s series finale, with her most recent post reading, “One episode left. To share the screen with Luke over these past 7 years was such a dream.”
Did Kelsey Asbille Hint at Plans to Return to the ‘Yellowstone’ Franchise?
Before Yellowstone came to an end, Asbille weighed in on Monica and Kayce‘s future, telling The Hollywood Reporter in November 2024, “Oh, [there are] definitely [hurdles]. That’s I guess part of marriage, the hurdles. That’s just life! But I think they’ve always been endgame for each other. It’s what they’ve been working so hard towards, building this family and making a home with their son and looking forward. So I hope they get that peace in the end.”
Grimes, meanwhile, showed support for a spinoff centered around the fictional couple.
“[Kelsey and I] keep saying that if Taylor calls and it’s something he wants to do and it’s something he wants to write, we would absolutely say yes,” he noted.
Will Kelsey Asbille Return as Monica in Luke Grimes’ Spinoff Series ‘Marshals’?
Based on promotional material for Grimes’ show Marshals, Monica presumably gets killed off before the events of the pilot. She doesn’t appear in any footage, and there are a multitude of hints that Kayce and his son are weathering a personal loss when the show begins.
Grimes remained largely tight-lipped about how Marshals will address his personal life.
“We definitely wanted to make sure to give it a real story and make it interesting and make it believable,” Grimes shared in June 2025 to People about Marshals. “If it was just like, ‘Well, he’s happy’ — we’re just going to watch him be happy? That’s not very cool. But I’ll say this, the idea that was pitched to me is very, very good and very interesting and it really roped me in and I think it will rope the audience in as well.”
He continued: “There’s going to be some familiar faces. There’s going to be a lot of new faces too, so we’ll see how that all feels. To go back into it in a new set of circumstances is going to be [a] kind of transition.”
Asbille has not spoken out about her potential involvement with Marshals.
