NCIS Cast Then and Now: Where Are They Today?

Remember when 21 million people tuned in every Tuesday night just to watch Gibbs and his team solve crimes?

NCIS was not chasing awards or critical acclaim. It was simply the biggest drama on television, a show that became part of the weekly routine for millions of viewers.

Twenty years later, the cast that built that audience has gone in very different directions.

Mark Harmon spent 19 seasons playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs, a man who communicated through headslaps, numbered rules, and long silences in a basement where he was always building a boat.

His exit was classic Gibbs. In Season 19, he walked into the Alaskan wilderness and never came back.

Harmon never fully left the franchise, though. He remained an executive producer and later returned as the narrator of NCIS: Origins. He may no longer appear on screen, but his voice still connects the franchise to its most recognizable character.

Pauley Perrette’s departure in 2018 followed a very different path.

After 15 seasons as Abby Sciuto — the Caf-Pow-loving forensic scientist who made the lab feel different from every other room in the building — Perrette left amid a public dispute. She later posted allegations involving multiple physical assaults on set. A separate conflict centered on an incident involving Mark Harmon’s dog and a crew member who was bitten.

Neither Perrette nor Harmon has publicly provided a complete account of what happened, and many details remain disputed.

Perrette later starred in the CBS sitcom Broke, which was canceled after one season in 2020. She has not returned to acting since, focusing instead on animal welfare and LGBTQ advocacy. By her own account, she is happier outside the entertainment industry.

Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo are the cast members making the biggest return.

De Pablo left NCIS in 2013 after negotiations over Ziva David’s future broke down. Weatherly stayed until 2016 before moving on to headline CBS’s Bull.

That series later became the center of controversy when actress Eliza Dushku accused Weatherly of sexual harassment. CBS ultimately paid a $9.5 million settlement.

Now Weatherly and de Pablo are filming NCIS: Tony & Ziva in Europe, finally bringing two of the franchise’s most popular characters back together.

Fans have been waiting for that reunion ever since Ziva’s apparent death more than a decade ago.

Then there is Sean Murray, the one cast member who never left.

He joined the series in Season 1 as Timothy McGee, the inexperienced “Probie” who was constantly being tested by the team around him.

More than two decades later, he is still there.

Almost everyone else has either moved on, returned, or disappeared from the series altogether.

David McCallum, who played Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard from the beginning, died in September 2023 at age 90. He remained part of the show almost until the end.

The series honored him with a tribute episode, but it could not replace what McCallum himself brought to the role. He started acting in the 1950s, and that history seemed to follow him into every scene.

When Ducky explained something, it felt like explanation.

Today, Murray stands as the last direct link to the show’s earliest years.

No spin-offs. No public feuds. No departure-and-return storyline.

Just McGee, still sitting at his desk after all these years, long after Gibbs left for Alaska, Abby left the lab, and Ducky said goodbye.