Her profile rose dramatically when she was cast as Jenny Schechter on Showtime's lesbian-centric series "The L-Word" (2004). Her character—a dark, brooding writer fresh from graduating the University of Chicago—recently discovered her sexual orientation and found herself in the center of a circle of Los Angeles lesbians, serving as the lynchpin for the rest of the ensemble that included Jennifer Beals, Pam Grier and Erin Daniels. The polar opposite of Kirshner in real life, her character—impulsive, indulgent and sometimes downright despicable—fluctuated between the gay and straight worlds, falling prey to her erotic desires and moral ambiguity. Utterly fearless, Kirshner relished the challenge of appearing nude in numerous steamy sex scenes, making her a favorite pin-up in the lesbian community. Meanwhile, Kirshner returned to the big screen, costarring in “The Black Dahlia” (2006), Brian De Palma’s take on James Ellroy’s complicated and richly-textured noir thriller about two hard-edged cops (Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart) who descend into obsession, corruption and sexual degeneracy as they investigate the brutal murder of would-be actress Elizabeth Short (Kirshner), who was found tortured and vivisected in a vacant lot in Los Angeles.