The fifth season of Shameless, an American comedy-drama television series based on the British series of the same name by Paul Abbott, premiered on January 11, 2015 on the Showtime television network. Executive producers are John Wells, Paul Abbott and Andrew Stearn, and producer Michael Hissrich. Like all previous seasons, the season consisted of 12 episodes.

Suzana Drobnjakovic, known by her stage name Sasha Alexander, is an American actress and television director. She played Gretchen Witter in Dawson's Creek and has acted in films including Yes Man (2008) and He's Just Not That Into You (2009). Alexander played Caitlin Todd for the first two seasons of NCIS (2003–2005). From July 2010 through September 2016, Alexander starred as Maura Isles in the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles, and was a regular in Season 5 and 6 of Shameless in 2015–2016.