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Karen Hayes is a fictional character on the television program 24 portrayed by actress Jayne Atkinson. She appeared as a recurring character in twelve episodes of the fifth season and was a main cast member in eighteen episodes of the sixth season.

Before joining the United States Department of Homeland Security, Hayes was an FBI agent. She worked within the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, eventually becoming Senior Agent and later a Division Agent in Charge.

Hayes has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Princeton University.

Hayes is the Division Director of the United States Department of Homeland Security's Los Angeles branch at the time of Day 5. Vice President Hal Gardner authorizes her to absorb and essentially replace the workers at CTU - Los Angeles after a major terrorist attack leaves many of CTU's original employees dead. Hayes quickly usurps the current CTU head Bill Buchanan and replaces most of CTU's staff with her own employees at Homeland Security.

Throughout the rest of the day, she begins to have doubts on whether the absorption is necessary. She also grows suspicious of her superiors when President Charles Logan issues an executive order for the detainment and arrest of Jack Bauer, who has previously been helping CTU and Hayes, for assassinating former President David Palmer. When Hayes queries Logan for evidence, he tells her it is forthcoming. This is especially troubling for Hayes because her workers are already hard at work tracking Christopher Henderson, a known member of the conspiracy responsible for Palmer's death, and are forced to shift resources in order to find Bauer. Unbeknownst to Hayes, Logan issues this order so that he can silence Bauer, who is gathering evidence that implicates Logan in the day's events.

She follows her orders by tracking the movements of Audrey Raines and Chloe O'Brian, two of the few CTU workers that are still active after the Homeland Security absorption. When she discovers Bauer's location and notifies President Logan of this, he tells her not to send a CTU squad because he is going to use the military to capture Bauer. Hayes is confused by the President's actions. Her suspicions are further heightened when she learns from Mike Novick that Logan never contacted the military about Bauer.

Chloe is subsequently detained for taking action directly against Homeland Security. She is able to escape detention, although in order to get past Shari Rothenberg, Chloe is forced to disclose the truth about President Logan. When Hayes questions Shari about that conversation, Shari tells her of Chloe's suspicions. A phone call to Novick then reveals that no member of the executive office has yet seen Logan's "evidence" against Bauer. Based on the President's actions in the preceding hours, Hayes is convinced that Logan is indeed manipulating CTU in order to kill Bauer. Realizing that Chloe is vital to Bauer's success in finding evidence against Logan, Hayes calls Buchanan to warn that Homeland Security has traced Chloe to his house and a squad is on their way to arrest her.

While Jack follows the tape onto a private jet leaving Van Nuys Airport, Hayes works with Chloe to determine which passenger has intercepted the tape from Henderson. When the pilot begins to depressurize the baggage hold where Jack is trapped, Hayes patches Jack through to the pilot to alert him to the situation. Eventually, she and Chloe determine the copilot has the audio tape.

President Logan responds by ordering an F18 to fire upon the plane. Hayes brings Chloe back to CTU where, along with Buchanan, the three work to find Jack a landing space suitable for an emergency landing. Meanwhile, Hayes is reluctantly forced to disclose the current situation to Miles. Later, she orders Vladimir Bierko be transferred to holding at Division. Bierko subsequently escapes and Hayes recommends that Henderson be offered a deal in exchange for his help in finding Bierko. With Henderson's information, CTU learns that he plans to seize a Russian submarine in a Los Angeles port, pursuant to the treaty signed earlier by Logan. Hayes, together with Buchanan and Chloe, aids Jack in successfully stopping Bierko from firing the submarine's missiles.

After Jack successfully obtains a confession from Logan, Hayes prepares to leave CTU for the day. She acknowledges to Buchanan that she will strongly recommend to newly appointed President Gardner that he remain as Special Agent in Charge of CTU. At the end of the day, Buchanan asks to have breakfast with Hayes, though she asks for a raincheck.

Sometime before Day 6 began, Karen marries Bill Buchanan. She is also appointed to the White House as National Security Advisor to President Wayne Palmer. At the beginning of day 6, Karen argues with Chief of Staff Tom Lennox about his plan of creating detention facilities for Muslims in America. Karen believes that Lennox's detention facilities are no better than concentration camps. A few minutes later Karen receives a phone call about another attack in Los Angeles. CTU suspects that Hamri Al-Assad is behind the attacks. Karen tells the president that her analysts believe Assad's death will stop the organization from attacking again. Shortly after, Jack talks to the president through CTU explaining that he escaped from Fayed and that killing Assad would be a mistake. Karen, Lennox, and President Palmer seem doubtful, however. They have reason to believe that Assad is responsible based on twenty years of evidence. They all question Jack's state of mind after being tortured in China for nearly two years. Reluctantly, President Palmer continues with the airstrike to take out Assad. CTU later learns that Abu Fayed was indeed behind the attacks all along, causing Karen to regret her skepticism about Jack's message. She suggests that Assad get a presidential pardon in exchange for aid in finding Fayed.

After the nuclear bomb's detonation, Karen continues to maintain her stance against Tom as he aims to impose more restrictions on civil liberties. However, Tom confronts her with evidence that she had covered up an incident months ago in which CTU, under Bill's direction, had detained a group of terror suspects, including Fayed, and released all of them on insufficient evidence. Karen had sequestered the file in order to conceal her husband's role is setting free a man who would turn out to be an extremely dangerous terrorist, although she continues to insist that there was no evidence of Fayed's guilt at the time. Though Karen retorts that Lennox has his own incriminating secrets, she is forced to resign. When she delivers her resignation to President Palmer, he guesses that her long-running dispute with Tom is the cause, but cannot persuade her to stay. As she leaves, Karen requests to be transferred to CTU in Los Angeles and assures Wayne that in his heart, he knows how to deal with the day's challenges.

While at the airport, Bill calls Karen about the assassination attempt on Wayne Palmer. Shocked at the news, Karen immediately revokes her resignation and returns to the White House. Vice President Noah Daniels is not pleased with this, as he intends to use his powers as acting Commander in Chief to launch a nuclear strike against Fayed's country and Karen would present formidable opposition. Indeed, during a meeting with the Joint Chiefs, Karen argues that the Vice President's plan for a nuclear "warning strike" could easily evolve into a third World War. After the conference, she appeals to Tom, believing that he shared her viewpoint on the Daniels's error, but he refuses to acknowledge this fact. Karen then visits Wayne Palmer's operating room and consults the doctor about waking Wayne from his induced coma. The doctor replies that doing so would be irresponsible as it could severely compromise Wayne's health, but Karen convinces Sandra Palmer to give her consent for the procedure. Wayne awakens just in time to call off the nuclear strike, prompting Daniels to attempt to invoke the 25th Amendment. Though Wayne initially prevails over the Vice President, Daniels ultimately assumes the office anyway when Wayne falls into a more serious coma.

Having been united against Daniels, Karen and Tom come to accept a truce, promising to work together. When the Department of Justice finds out about Bill's release of Fayed two years ago, Tom advises Karen to distance herself from her husband. She fires Bill, though she is heartbroken at the decision. This sacrifice, combined with Tom's support, brings Daniels to accept Karen as a valued advisor, asking her to sit in on tense conference calls with Russian President Suvarov concerning technology from the recovered suitcase nukes that would compromise Russian defenses.

When Phillip Bauer offers to trade this component in exchange for his grandson Josh Bauer, Karen defends Josh's rights and opposes the deal, but Tom and Daniels agree to the plan anyway. Disagreeing with the order to CTU to exchange Josh for the circuit board, Karen decides to intervene, and enlists Bill's help and assists him in freeing Jack from a convoy transporting him back to CTU. Shortly after freeing Jack in order to have him stop the exchange, Karen is found out, and security officials promptly arrest her. In holding, Daniels confronts Karen about her insubordination, for which she is ready to accept the consequences. However, believing that the country needs its confidence in the administration restored, Tom persuades the Vice President to pardon both Karen and Bill, contingent on their resignations, to avoid any further internal scandal from being exposed in public. Karen quickly thanks her former rival upon her release, and agrees to resign from the administration.