NCIS: Los Angeles is a spin-off from NCIS (series) and focus on the NCIS Office of Special Projects located in Los Angeles with the agents assigned to that area investigating cases concerning Naval or Marine personnel that occur in or around Los Angeles itself.
The series originally began as two backdoor pilot episodes, Legend Part 1 (episode) and Legend Part 2 (episode), both of which aired as a part of NCIS Season 6.
On September 22, 2009, the first ever NCIS: Los Angeles solo episode, "Identity" premiered directly after NCIS. The show's title was the subject of much speculation, as the so-called back-door pilot episodes did not reveal it with the titles hypothesized by fans were NCIS: OSP, OSP, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: LA. The title was officially announced in a press release along with the scheduling of the series.
On April 30 and May 1, 2012, NCIS: Los Angeles had a crossover episode with fellow CBS drama series, Hawaii Five-0 in the episodes titled, Pa Make Loa (episode) and Touch of Death (episode) which centered around the Hawaii Five-0 Task and OSP teams working together to stop a potential outbreak of smallpox. Both episodes aired as a part of Hawaii Five-0 Season 2 and also NCIS: Los Angeles Season 3 and are also available on the respective series's DVD.
In Summer 2014, it was revealed that NCIS: Los Angeles had been moved from its original slot of Tuesdays at 9pm to Mondays at 10pm with the third NCIS spin-off series, NCIS: New Orleans getting NCIS: Los Angeles's former timeslot instead which ultimately meant that NCIS: Los Angeles aired a day before NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans.
On March 19, 2013, NCIS: Los Angeles intended to introduce a spin-off series titled "NCIS: RED" but CBS opted to pass on the series and as such, NCIS: RED remains the only series within the NCIS universe not to have gotten the green light for an official series.
On September 2021, NCIS: Hawaii aired for the first time and as such, NCIS: Los Angeles aired a day before both NCIS and NCIS: Hawaii.
NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 began airing on October 10, 2021, and concluded on May 22, 2022 with NCIS: Los Angeles Season 14's premiere episode aired on Sunday October 9, 2022, at the new time of 10pm.
On January 20, 2023, it was announced that NCIS: Los Angeles would end with its fourteenth season with the series finale airing on May 14, 2023.
Characters
Protagonists
| Name | Portrayed by | Occupation |
|---|---|---|
| G. Callen (2009—23) | Chris O'Donnell | NCIS Special Agent assigned to the Office of Special Projects located in Los Angeles and who is also the lead agent in charge of the OSP field team. Callen grew up in the foster care system and as such, lived in many foster homes and has no idea what the "G" in his name stands for. He specializes in undercover work. |
| Kensi Blye (2009—23) | Daniela Ruah | NCIS Special Agent assigned to the Office of Special Projects located in Los Angeles and the Junior agent of the OSP team. After being partnered with NCIS Special Agent Dominic Vail who was killed in the line of duty, Kensi was partnered with LAPD/NCIS Liaison Officer, Detective Marty Deeks with whom she is married to as well. In addition to being trained in forensics, she lives for the thrill of going undercover and is often the sniper of the team. |
| Sam Hanna (2009—23) | LL Cool J | NCIS Special Agent assigned to the Office of Special Projects located in Los Angeles and a former Navy SEAL who is fluent in Arabic and is Callen's partner. He is the Senior agent of the team. Hanna was also married, he has a son and a daughter. |
| Eric Beale (2009—21) | Barrett Foa | Tech Operator assigned to the Office of Special Projects located in Los Angeles. He is also the boyfriend of Nell Jones. Beale enjoys surfing and wears corrective eyewear. He is also German-American and specializes in accessing everything and anything technology related such as traffic cameras or databases that the team need in regard to a case. |
| Nate Getz (2009—2017) | Peter Cambor | Operational Psychologist originally assigned to the Office of Special Projects located in Los Angeles. Is tasked with making sure that the field agents are suitable for undercover work and that their mental health is good. He is currently on assignment in the Middle East but occasionally returns to Los Angeles to assist his OSP colleagues. |
| Henrietta Lange (2009—23) | Linda Hunt | Operations Manager of the Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles. The character made her first appearance in the series premiere on 22 September 2009. Despite her small size, Hetty is very intimidating and does not hesitate to use the resources to ensure the safety of her Agents. She replaced Lara Macy following an assassination attempt on G. Callen and has remained in the position of Operations Manager to this day. |
| Marty Deeks (2010—23) | Eric Christian Olsen | A Detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who currently serves as the LAPD liaison to NCIS and who is assigned to the Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles. He became Kensi Blye's second partner after his predecessor, NCIS Special Agent Dominic Vail was killed in the line of duty. He and Kensi develop a romantic relationship and later get married. The character made his first appearance in the nineteenth episode of the first season on 6 April 2010. A Los Angeles Police Department detective, Deeks like Eric Beale enjoys surfing. Deeks has a bomb-sniffing dog named "Monty". |
| Nell Jones (2010—21) | Renée Felice Smith | Intelligence Analyst with NCIS who is assigned to the Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles. She works with Eric Beale who disliked her at first but there are hints suggesting the two might have fallen for each other. She has expressed an interest in presumably becoming a field agent and as such, has gone out into the field on many occasions. She is also Eric Beale's girlfriend. The character made her first appearance in the fourth episode of the second season on 5 October 2010. |
| Shay Mosley (2017—18) | Nia Long | NCIS Executive Assistant Director for Pacific Operations; in this capacity, she is charged with overseeing the Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles. She was involved in a romantic relationship with arms dealer, Spencer Williams and had a son together until he was kidnapped. Mosley orchestrated a dangerous off the books mission to Mexico to save he son that resulted in the team being severely wounded and facing serious repercussions. She later goes into hiding from the Mexican cartels when they place a bounty on her and son's heads. She is the successor to the late Owen Granger. |
| Fatima Namazi (2019–23) | Medalion Rahimi | Fatima Namazi is a NCIS Special Agent. |
| Devin Rountree (2020–23) | Caleb Castille | Devin Roundtree is a NCIS Special Agent. Prior to joining NCIS, Rountree worked as a Special Agent for the FBI. |
| Hollace Kilbride (2014–23) | Gerald McRaney | Retired Admiral. |
| Lara Macy (2009) | Louise Lombard | Former Special Agent in charge, NCIS: OSP the time of events chronicled in the two episodes entitled Legend Part One and Legend Part Two respectively. Following an attack on G. Callen, Macy was subsequently reassigned to a posting overseas in France. Unfortunately, while back in the U.S, she was murdered by a member of the Reynosa Cartel with her body being set alight and left in a fire pit with her death being the main focus of the last two or three episodes of NCIS Season 7. Both the NCIS Major Case Response Team and Office of Special Projects were left devastated by her death. |
| Dominic Vail (2009–10) | Adam Jamal Craig | Special Agent assigned to OSP Los Angeles, the character made his first appearance in the series premiere on 22 September 2009, but in the episode "Missing" he was kidnapped, and then reported missing. No one had seen him until "Found" when it was revealed that he was still alive and held hostage by terrorists. The special agents were able to successfully find him only to be caught in a gunfight with terrorists. Dom died during the escape attempt when he jumped in front of Sam to save him from the shooter with his death leaving the OSP team completely devastated. Dom's role as being Kensi Blye's partner was eventually taken over by LAPD Detective Marty Deeks while his position of being the newbie or the Probie of the team presumably remains vacant to this day. |
| Owen Granger (2011–17) | Miguel Ferrer | Assistant Director of NCIS assigned to the Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles, Presumed dead after being diagnosed with terminal cancer resulting from his exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Following his collapse while working he was transported to the hospital. Rather than remain hospitalized Granger against medical advice discharged himself leaving a note for Henrietta. |
Shading indicates that the character is deceased.
Seasons
| Season | Episodes | Originally Aired | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Aired | Last Aired | ||
| 1 | 24 | September 22, 2009 | May 25, 2010 |
| 2 | 23 | September 21, 2010 | May 17, 2011 |
| 3 | 23 | September 20, 2011 | May 15, 2012 |
| 4 | 24 | September 25, 2012 | May 14, 2013 |
| 5 | 24 | September 24, 2013 | May 13, 2014 |
| 6 | 24 | September 29, 2014 | May 18, 2015 |
| 7 | 24 | September 21, 2015 | May 2, 2016 |
| 8 | 23 | September 25, 2016 | May 14, 2017 |
| 9 | 23 | October 1, 2017 | May 20, 2018 |
| 10 | 24 | September 30, 2018 | May 19, 2019 |
| 11 | 22 | September 29, 2019 | April 26, 2020 |
| 12 | 17 | November 8, 2020 | May 23, 2021 |
| 13 | 20 | October 10, 2021 | May 22, 2022 |
| 14 | 21 + 1 | October 9, 2022 | May 21, 2023 |
Sources
- CBS Press Release concerning NCIS: Los Angeles for the 2009-2010 Season
- CBS Press Release concerning NCIS Episode 6.23 Legend Part 2
- CBS Press Release concerning NCIS Episode 6.22 Legend Part 1
- Wikipedia
- Futon Critic
- NCIS Los Angeles Episodes on Clicker
- NCIS: Los Angeles on the NCIS: Los Angeles Database