Where are they now? The cast of NCIS, 19 years on.

Across its 19 seasons and 435 episodes, NCIS has cycled through a lot of actors.

Beginning in 2003, the police procedural began off the back of two episodes in JAG, which served as a 'backdoor pilot', launching a number of characters who would stay with us for years.

As of 2022, the show is the seventh longest running scripted US prime time TV series, and the third longest running non-animated US prime time TV series.

While the show’s 20th season is expected to air later this year, fans still have a fondness for the earlier days, where the likes of Pauley Perrette and Sasha Alexander were playing badass female characters, and various dramas from behind the scenes were yet to bubble to the surface.

With the exception of Gibbs and Ducky, most of the original characters have since left the show, sometimes lasting a full decade on the series before they chose to say goodbye.

Over the last few years, we’ve farewelled Abby Sciuto, Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, as new characters have cemented themselves in NCIS history.

Here’s where the original cast of NCIS are now.

Pauley Perrette.

Images: Getty.

Pauley Perrette starred as Abby Sciuto on NCIS for 15 years, eventually leaving in 2018 under confusing circumstances. She recently revealed she had a "massive stroke" after her tenure ended.

"I woke up and had no feeling on the entire right side of my body," Perrette told Entertainment Tonight this week.

"At first I thought I had just slept funny. [I couldn’t] feel my finger touching my face, couldn’t feel my face being touched by my finger, couldn’t feel my laptop sitting on my lap, no feeling at all on the right-hand side - I could have burned myself or cut my finger off and wouldn’t have known."

It’s 9/2
One year ago I had a massive stoke.
Before that I lost so many beloved family and friends,
And daddy
And then
Cousin Wayne

Yet still a survivor after this traumatic life I’ve been given so far…

And still so grateful,
Still so full of faith,
And STILL HERE! pic.twitter.com/psHokwiHij

— Pauley Perrette (@PauleyP) September 2, 2022

Abby Sciuto was a forensic scientist who was recognisable for her goth style and her bubbly demeanour. However, as the years went by, Perette seemed to fall out with her co-star, Mark Harmon, who plays Leroy Gibbs on the show.

Across a series of tweets, Perette discussed bullying and her refusal to 'go low'. It’s also been noted that Sciuto and Gibbs shared no scenes together during her final episode. Instead, Sciuto watched from a distance as Gibbs read a letter she wrote for him.

At 53, Perette has officially retired from acting, and has been adamant on Twitter that she will never return to NCIS.

Mark Harmon.

Images: Getty.

Mark Harmon has been the leading man on NCIS for 19 seasons now, starring as Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

A former US Marine Corps Scout Sniper turned special agent, Gibbs runs the team at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. 

Before his time on NCIS, Mark was a character actor for most of the 90s. He was praised for his role as Dr. Robert Caldwell in St. Elsewhere, where he portrayed one of the first ever TV characters to have HIV.

He also received an Emmy nomination for his role as Special Agent Simon Donovan in a four-episode arc in The West Wing. Although just a guest-star, he was given one of the saddest deaths on the long-running political drama, earning him a nod in the Outstanding Guest Actor category.

Since beginning on NCIS, Harmon has mostly stuck to the role of Leroy. However, he has stepped up into an executive producer role for the series. 

When it comes to his personal life, Harmon keeps a pretty low-profile. He’s been married to fellow actor Pam Dawber for 35 years now, and the pair share two sons. While they mostly keep away from the spotlight, Harmon’s son Sean has played a young Gibbs on NCIS a number of times.

Sasha Alexander.

Images: Getty.

Sasha Alexander also made her NCIS debut through the JAG backdoor pilot, beginning on the series in the role of Caitlin "'Kate' Todd, an NCIS Special Agent.

After two seasons in the role, she left to pursue other opportunities, but has since said the show’s gruelling filming schedule proved to be too physically demanding.

Todd was killed off in an assassination in the season two episode 'Twilight', and was eventually 'replaced' by the character Ziva David, played by Cote de Pablo.

Since leaving, Alexander has kept an active career in TV, starring as Dr. Maura Isles in the show Rizzoli & Isles, and eventually stepping up into the director’s chair.

Recently, she directed an episode of the Netflix series You.

Michael Weatherly.

Images: Getty.

Michael Weatherly played Senior NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo on NCIS for 13 seasons.

A former police detective, DiNozzo was another character to appear on JAG. He went on to appear in NCIS, as well as its spin-offs, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans - the only character to appear in all four aside from Abby Sciuto.

DiNozzo left at the end of season 16 after learning he had a daughter with Cote de Pablo’s character, Ziva David. But since then, Weatherly hasn’t had too much going on.

While he took on minor roles and a few presenting jobs, it seems his focus turned to family.

While Weatherly was briefly married to Jessica Alba, he went on to tie the knot with medical internist Dr. Bojana Janković. The pair share two children, and Weatherly also has an older son from a previous relationship.

Cote de Pablo.

Images: Getty.

Chilean actress Cote de Pablo played Ziva David on the show from seasons three through to 11, first appearing at the very end of season two. She 'replaced' Sasha Alexander’s Caitlin Todd, but played a very different character. 

David had a number of storylines across her time on the show, as well as a romance with Anthony DiNozzo, whom she ended up having a child with. When she left the show, she was killed off-screen, with production hinting it still might not be the end of the character - leaving the door open for her to return for a small arc in 2017.

As for de Pablo, she seems to live a quiet life away from the spotlight, and hasn’t engaged in a lot of major projects in the years since she was on NCIS. She also doesn't have much of an online profile.

"I’m not on Facebook. I’m not on Twitter. I know a lot of celebrities who go around complaining how little privacy they have. And then my question to that is always, well, how much of yourself are you putting out there? If you are everywhere, then you've sacrificed the very thing that you are complaining about, which is your own privacy," she previously said.

Lauren Holly.

Images: Getty.

Actress Lauren Holly played Jenny Shepard on NCIS from seasons three through to five.

As the Director of NCIS, the character was part of a lot of storylines, and also had an established history with Gibbs when she joined the show.

While ongoing feelings were constantly hinted at between the pair, Shepard was killed off in an assassination at the end of season five as Holly elected to leave the show.

Holly had an established acting career when she came onto the show, having starred in a number of TV shows and movies already.

She had a starring role in the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber alongside Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, for which she won an MTV Movie Award for best kiss.

In more recent years, Holly has starred in Designated Survivor and Canadian drama The Family Law. She’s been married three times and has three adopted sons.

Feature Image: CBS.

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