< NCIS

NCIS/Characters


Within thirty minutes or less, the guy on the left will make a movie reference, the lady will either get an English idiom wrong or burn rubber, and the guy on the right will Dope Slap either or both of them. Guaranteed, or your pizza's free.

The faculty and agents of the hit series NCIS.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon)

Tony: What have you heard? That suspects would rather confess than be interrogated by him? That his steely gaze can cool a room by five degrees? That he can only be killed by a silver bullet, like a werewolf? Well, it's all true, except the silver bullet part. Might give him indigestion or heartburn, but I don't think it'd kill him. Any other questions?

Not to be confused with Ludicrous Gibbs, though he does pull some pretty crazy stunts to get the bad guys. The team leader, a former marine sniper, and interrogator extraordinaire.

  • Always Gets His Man: Highlighted in Mind Games: The serial killer featured in that episode was the boogeyman of D.C. when he was active, evading metro cops and terrorizing the female populace. When explaining the case to McGee, Tony and Paula Cassidy finished by saying "But he made one crucial mistake: He killed a Petty Officer."
  • Amnesia Danger: In "Hiatus", a bomb blast knocks Gibbs back to his Marine days. He has critical information that he doesn't remember. Luckily, remembrance is just a Dope Slap away.
  • Anti-Hero: Type III
  • Atonement Detective
  • Badass: There's a good reason why he has Memetic Badass status in-universe.
  • Berserk Button: Do not insult, desecrate or harm the US Marines or anyone associated with them to the Nth degree. Do not hurt any member of his team or anyone else he cares about. And seven thousand times never hurt Abby (though Abby usually has the situation well in hand).
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer
  • Break the Cutie: Gibbs does this to a prospective replacement for Ziva. At least, we see her leave crying, while he nonchalantly walks out and tells Tony, "Strike one".
  • Born In The Wrong Decade: Fairly consistent throughout the series. Example: he tried to get a USB drive to work by biting it.
    • He also refers to computer chips and the like with terms such as "doo-da" and "deweywhacker."
    • It's hard to keep track of how many cell phones he's destroyed during the run of the series, either because they malfunctioned or just generally annoyed him. One even wound up in a jar of paint thinner. His agents now keep plenty of spares in their desks, ready to hand to him at a moment's notice.
    • When a Roomba vacuum cleaner was about to suck up some of the evidence from a crime scene, he didn't even bother picking it up or trying to turn it off. He stomped it to pieces.
  • The Captain
  • Cartwright Curse: With his first wife and Jenny Shepard.
  • Chest of Medals: Subverted, he's Badass enough to have earned numerous medals and citations to be this if he wanted but he doesn't care for medals, Tony apparently keeps track of his accomplishments. He even gave away his Silver Star which is the third highest honour that a US serviceman can get for valour in the face of the enemy.
  • Cold Sniper: Marine sniper previous to his current employment.
  • Cowboy Cop: But he always gets away with it. He's Gibbs. And "he only uses his powers for good".
  • Crazy Prepared: As shown in the blackout, he has a kit with three polaroid cameras, Band-Aids, food, and clean socks.
  • Crusading Widower: He didn't rest until he hunted down and killed the man who slaughtered his first wife and their eight-year-old daughter. Actually, he didn't rest after that either.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Death Glare
  • Determinator
  • Dope Slap: Aka the "Gibbs Slap" done to all of his agents and Abby at least once, but to Tony the most. He even occasionally self-inflicts when he knows he's doing something he'd slap any of his agents for.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Kate at one point describes his driving as "Apparently Gibbs is trying to kill us." He's also the only one on the team unfazed by the motorist antics of Ziva, another crazy driver.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Though it's never stated that he's embarrassed by it, no one except residents of his hometown or his ex-wives call him 'Leroy'.
  • Fair Cop
  • A Father to His Men: Ziva directly calls him "the closest thing she has to a father". (Note that her father is very much alive.)
    • Later, he explicitly refers to his team as his "kids."
    • A special notice should go to Tony as well; especially in that one episode where he referenced to Tony as his son to chat up a man who had a bomb strapped to him... Over Tetris.
  • Foe Yay: With attorney Allison Hart.
    • With Dr. Samantha Ryan in season ten.
  • Friend to All Children: Probably has something to do with Kelly. If there's a child involved, he will take the case very seriously.
  • Guile Hero: Just as guile as a Magnificent Bastard is magnificent.
  • Gut Feeling: It's legendary. Some fans consider his gut an extra character. His gut has Memetic Badass status in-universe.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: His four past wives, and Jenny Shepard (who the two had a past relationship) are all redheads. He's dating a redhead currently.
    • Not anymore, now it's a blonde...
    • Now he has Foe Yay with a brunette.
    • When Tony learns about Gibbs flirting with a suspect, his immediate response is "Is she a redhead?" (She is.)
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Ducky.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: I thought Bobby Caldwell died of AIDS...
  • It's Personal: He has a tendency to do this. As said, anything involving children (or otherwise reminding him of Shannon and Kelly) automatically becomes this. Hurting anyone from his team also pushes him to this point. But every criminal that is disgusting enough to him can trigger this.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold
  • Knight in Shining Armor: To the women in his team, especially Abby.
  • Layman's Terms: Does this at least once an episode, mostly to Abby, Ducky and McGee.
  • Magnetic Hero
  • Memetic Badass: in-universe.
  • Military Maverick
  • Must Have Caffeine: In the form of coffee.
  • Papa Wolf: Do not endanger his people. Just don't. Epecially Abby.

Abby:(telling Gibbs why she didn't tell him about an ex she got a restraining order on) "I wanted him restrained, Gibbs, not beaten to a bloody pulp."

  • Perp Sweating: A master of interrogation.
  • Phrase Catcher: "On it, Boss."
  • Right Behind Me: Tends to evoke this reaction from his agents.
  • Sexy Mentor
  • Semper Fi: And Gibbs always remembers it.
  • The Strategist
  • Team Dad: To his agents, but especially to Abby.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: Took a little longer than most but he had one.
  • Ultimate Job Security: It may change with Vance, but it seems this man can never get canned.
    • And, now Vance and Gibbs are friends of a sort, and Vance knows that Gibbs has the unaltered copy of Vance's personnel file - even if he's never opened it. Yet. Nope, Gibbs has yet again armor-plated his job security in adamantium.
    • When Gibbs "retired" at the end of season 3, it later was revealed that Director Shepard had failed to file his retirement. His job security is so great he can't quit even if he wants to!
    • It has been implied on occasion that before Vance, and possibly even during Vance's tenure, Gibbs would be Director if he ever decided he wanted the job; the sheer havoc he could cause if denied means only a fool would try to stop him.
    • Of course the one time Gibbs acted as Director while Jenny was away... let's just say he doesn't have the patience for the politics.
  • Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: The team has had discussions pitting Gibbs vs. the likes of The Terminator, Godzilla, Mothra, and himself. They tend to give the edge to Gibbs.

Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo Jr. (Michael Weatherly)

Ziva: Tony, your dying words will be 'I've seen this film'.

  • Becoming the Mask: In season four when he went undercover.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Ziva.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Very often Gibbs catches him apparently slacking off, only to then reveal all the investigation and work he's been doing.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Don't ever betray NCIS or the USA in general (like Agent Lee) or make fun of people he makes fun of but you don't know (like Det. McCadden).
    • Oh... and don't try to kill him and then think you can work with him.
    • And for the love of all things military, leave Ziva alone.
  • Butt Monkey
  • Clear My Name
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Exasperated Perp: His preferred method of interrogation. Most prominent when he doesn't ask questions, but just sits there, chewing on his tie and playing Tetris on his phone.
    • He once pulled this off while he was the one being interrogated. By the director of Mossad.
      • Wouldn't that be considered subverted since Tony was the "Perp" in this case and he pissed off the interrogator?
      • At first, but by the end he made Eli David (yes, it was Ziva's father) admit that he had sent the agent Tony had killed to spy on a but a meeting of several law enforcement agencies, which were discussing an operation regarding Israel.
  • Fair Cop
  • Genre Savvy: He's a big movie buff, and will very often find a way to compare the current case to a movie he's seen.
  • Handsome Lech
  • Hey, You: Calling McGee Probie or one of many McNicknames.
  • Ho Yay:
    • Let's just say there's a reason Gibbs/DiNozzo is the fandom's most popular slash pairing...
    • DiNozzo/McGee is fairly high up on the list as well.
  • Jerk Jock: he did graduate with a major in phys. ed. you know...
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: If you dig deep enough, you may find it, somewhere.
  • Ladykiller in Love: With Jeanne Benoit; he was undercover at the time, so it wasn't supposed to happen.
  • Locked in a Freezer: With Ziva in "Boxed In".
  • Mock Millionaire
  • The Movie Buff
  • My Friends and Zoidberg: Is on the receiving end of this twice in the episode "Last Man Standing."
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Of course, there's the McNicknames, but Tony gets his own share of this from Fornell, who pronounces his name DiNotso (he says the double z's like 'pizza') and occasionally McGee calls him DiNosey.
  • Number Two: Abby at one point claims he "becomes Gibbs" when Gibbs is not around.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: In the rare times when he's totally serious, it's almost scary.
    • Watch his interrogation room time in "Iced." He may have majored in Phys Ed, but he paid attention in his core classes.
  • Porn Stash: We've never seen it, but it must require a C-5 Galaxy to carry.
    • However, in "Bikini Wax," he reveals that he has a subscription to "GSM" ("Get Some Magazine"), and brings in one of the issues from his collection because the victim had a photoshoot in it.
  • Reference Overdosed: His movie references turn this show into this all on his own.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Several episodes reveal that his wardrobe is a who's-who of expensive name brands. His grousing during the shower scene in "SWAK" is one of the best examples:

Tony: This very instant, someone is incinerating my Ermenegildo Zegna suit, my Armani tie, my Dolce & Gabbana shirt, and my Gucci shoes!

  • Spanner in the Works: Tony is often so unpredictable that he can screw over the best laid plans of the villains by simply being his annoying self. This is also his preferred method of interrogation, thinking so far out of the loop that rehearsed defenses are useless, and being so annoying or weird that the suspect is unable to think clearly. This methodology also proves useful when he is being interrogated by the FBI or the Director of Mossad. He even called himself one in the season 7 opener:

Tony: I'm the wildcard. I'm the guy that looks at the reality in front of him and refuses to accept it.

  • Took a Level in Badass: Multiple levels between seasons three and four, then smaller yet still noticeable levels between seasons five and six, then multiple levels again between seasons six and seven.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: A little with Kate, but to a much greater degree with Ziva.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 with McGee. They act almost like brothers.
    • Tony is also very close to Gibbs, but you wouldn't say so from their normal interactions. It's the same story with Kate (which appears at first like a type 1), and with Ziva.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy:
    • Mostly in the early seasons, with Gibbs.
    • Also clearly present with his biological father. They're improving.

Caitlin "Kate" Todd (Sasha Alexander)

"Hack into the servers. I can't believe I just said that. I would have never suggested that before I started working here."

Abby: Care to guess what their fetish was, Kate?
Kate: Oh, no. I'm going to hell just listening to all this.

  • Informed Ability: Ari comments on her freakish observation skills - but the next episode Gibbs corrects her recreation of room. And on a different occasion this former Secret Service agent couldn't kill Ari because his eyes looked kind...
  • Killed Off for Real
  • Lady of War
  • Mood Whiplash: Causes two cases back to back in the Season 2 finale when she takes a bullet for Gibbs only to reveal she was wearing a bullet-proof vest only to then immediately get shot in the head.
  • Ms. Fanservice: a major subplot in one episode revolved around Tony finding a (real) picture of her in a wet T-shirt contest and using it as blackmail material
  • Only Sane Woman
  • Retroactive Recognition: Much more well-known as Dr. Maura Isles.
  • Tonight Someone Dies

Abigail "Abby" Sciuto (Pauley Perrette)

Tony: Abby Sciuto, resident NCIS forensic scientist, heart and soul. A paradox wrapped in an oxymoron, smothered in contradictions and terms. Sleeps in a coffin. Really, the happiest goth you'll ever meet.

Abby: I like you Michelle, so I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that.

Marty: You wouldn't happen to have an unhealthy obsession with death, would you?
Abby: Oh, no. It's just a hobby.

Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum)

"I can't wait to weigh your liver."

  • Broken Bird: OK, he's not a woman. But goodness, that was even the actual name of the episode.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: His tendency to go on long speeches during work is lampshaded by Palmer when he does his first dissection. "I feel the urge to explain something tangentially relevant."
  • Clear My Name: Subverted, Ducky didn't want to clear it, but Gibbs did.
  • The Coroner
  • Creepy Mortician: A very lovable kind of creepy, but still damn creepy. Gibbs finds it a useful way to break some suspects by showing them what will happen to their bodies if they refuse to cooperate and end up dead as a result. It works too.
    • He is kidnapped and nearly killed by one, who begins to drain his blood before Gibbs and company arrive to save him.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Would you have imagined Illya Kuryakin as a medical examiner?
  • Gentleman and a Scholar
  • Heroes Want Redheads: The very lovely Dr. Jordan Hampton.
  • The Medic: In addition to being the Medical Examiner.
  • The Munchausen: Subverted, as it seems to be generally accepted by those who know him that his stories are true.
  • My Beloved Smother: His mother had Alzheimer's and drove him crazy in early seasons; she was put in a home shortly after the death of her actress in late 2008 and died a year later.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Which leads to...
  • Punny Name: With a name like that, what did you think he'd be called, Mousey?
    • Ari actually first thinks of the locomotive, mildly surprising Ducky.
  • Quintessential British Gentleman: He is, of course, Scottish, but he was schooled at Oxford. This trope, therefore, naturally applies.
  • Shown Their Work: A meta-version. To prepare for the role, David McCallum went to coroner and medical examiner's conferences to learn the trade. He became so good the producers were tempted to pay him a consulting fee.
  • Talking to the Dead: He routinely does this with his "patients." Truth in Television: Real Life medical examiners have been known to do this.
  • Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: He became a licensed psychologist in later seasons after we see him studying for his exams and is occasionally called-upon to profile a suspect.

Timothy McGee (Sean Murray)

Abby: I love it when you talk geek!
McGee: I love it that you love it.

  • Abusive Parents: Revealed in recent[when?] seasons, his father was a very cold, emotionally abusive man to his son. McGee tells of a time when young he spent a great deal of effort and love on a birthday card for his father. His father's response: "You could do better."
    • Your Mileage May Vary. Most of McGee's descriptions sound less like an abuser per se than like the sterotyped "Captain von Trap" sort who makes a great professional naval officer but is really not up for the job of fatherhood. McGee certainly had no objection to naming his son after him.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Will do some irrational things to protect his college-age sister, some of which have jeopardized his career once.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer
  • Butt Monkey
  • Clear My Name
  • Cool Car: Had one in high school, much to the surprise of DiNozzo.
  • Deadpan Snarker: In later seasons.
  • Hidden Depths: A tech head, hacker and best selling author.
    • Who loves the outdoors and has various skills from the scouts, including tracking abilities.
  • Hollywood Nerd: He plays role-playing games online, prompting the others to occasionally call him "Elf Lord."
  • Ho Yay: Quite a bit with Tony, even being Mistaken for Gay on an occasion or two.
  • Loser Has Your Back: Plays this role once or twice in early seasons, but he's no longer enough of a loser to pull it off.
  • Most Writers Are Writers: He's a successful author of novels inspired by his workplace and coworkers, which he writes under the name "Thom E. Gemcity." (It's an anagram of Timothy McGee.)
  • Mr. Fixit: "Special Agent Goodwrench," season two, episode four.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Suffers from all of Tony's Mc-names and being called "Probie."
  • Name McAdjective: Tony gives him a lot of Mc-nicknames to work with.
  • Techno Babble
  • Took a Level in Badass: Between seasons six and seven. Big time. Most exemplified in the episode "Need To Know" when he was giving the young Special Agent Dorneget tips onto how he could possibly join the Major Case Squad as well as some of Gibbs' rules.[1]
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tony, behaving much like a pair of squabbling brothers at times.
  • Will They or Won't They?: As noted above with Abby.

Ziva David (Cote de Pablo)

Eli David: Use her well, Leon. Ziva is the sharp end of the spear.

"Have you ever been tied up by a woman before? Did you like it? Then today's not your lucky day."

Vance: Most fathers teach their daughters to drive. I have you to blame for this?
Eli David: This she learned from her mother.

Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly)

"Do you think it would be inappropriate if, as director, I went in there and smacked that smile off her face?"

  • Da Chief
  • The Last Dance: She died in a gunfight with five assassins, taking most of them with her.
  • Iron Lady
  • Redemption Equals Death
  • Secretly Dying: Aww . . .
  • Sexy Mentor
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Abused her power to try and get revenge on Rene Benoit, the man who killed her father
    • Her father's still alive.
      • Apparently. It is heavily implied that CIA was taking advantage of AFIS to make her father appear to be alive, thus discrediting her and preventing her from further ruining The Dragon's operation.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: Before was she killed, she was sadly already terminally ill.
    • In fact, it's implied that she preferred "hail of bullets" to "terminal illness" and that's part of why she acted the way she did leading up to her death.
      • Considering the details of the symptoms that would lead up to her death as described by Ducky to Gibbs, I, personally, do not blame her.

Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll)

Abby: Wow. I heard about your techy mojo.

Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen)

"Is it just me or does anyone else wonder how they get IUDs in there? That probably sounded a lot more inappropriate than I meant."

  • Butt Monkey
  • Fake Guest Star: Might as well be a Trope Codifier. Dietzen was credited as a recurring guest star for the first 5 seasons and as "Also Starring" from season 6 onwards. Is even on the cover art for the Season 8 DVD but is still not a main cast member.
  • Fetish: He apparently has a thing for boots.
  • The Glasses Come Off: During his Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Love I Not Honored More: He tells his love that while he loves her more than anything, his True Companions were in trouble and he needed to go and help them, even if it meant moving the wedding up to a sooner date (within the hour) and then come back for the honeymoon. She completely understands.
  • Nerds Are Sexy: Well, Agent Lee thought so.
    • His current fiance, Breena, does also.
  • Nightmare Fetishist
  • Recurring Character
  • Retirony: Set up, then averted. One moment, Jimmy's talking with Agent Barrett about his recent engagement. Seconds later, the Port-to-Port Killer is loose and violently kidnapping Jimmy and Barrett. However, Gibbs saves the day, and Jimmy ends up surviving the episode with only a few scratches.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Happens to him a lot, and when he tries to explain, he just looks worse.
  • The Watson: To Ducky's Holmes.

Brent Langer (Jonathan LaPaglia)

Vivian Blackadder (Robyn Lively)

Notable Antagonists/Secondary Characters:

Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin)

"Sorry, Caitlin."


Rene Benoit (Armand Assante)

It was actually cognac, not wine, that he and Ducky drank when they met.

  • N-Word Privileges: Only a French guy could give himself the codename La Grenouille (the Frog).

Trent Kort (David Dayan Fisher)

Tobias C. Fornell (Joe Spano)

Fornell: And people say we're bastards?
Gibbs: Only because they know us.

Tony: I thought you were dead.
Fornell: Got better.
Kate: I thought he was dead.
Tony: Got better.


Michelle Lee (Liza Lapira)

Tony: She's even more probie than Probie!

Mossad Director Eli David (Michael Nouri)

"Tell me, Leon. Are we winning?"

  • Abusive Parent: He uses his own children as tools in his schemes. One (Ziva) ends up killing another (Ari Haswari). On Eli's orders. As fathers go, he's about on par with Fire Lord Ozai.
  • Anti-Hero, or Tragic Villain: depending on your point of view.
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Badass Israeli
  • The Chessmaster
  • Complete Monster: He raised his children Ari and Ziva to be merciless killers. It is strongly implied that the attack that killed Ari's mother was part of his plans to harden Ari into a killer. He later orders Ziva to kill Ari in order to gain Gibbs' trust. Later, after abandoning Ziva to die at the hands of terrorists, he tries to frame her for the murder of a US Marine by another Mossad agent, because he realizes he has lost her loyalty.
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Fallen Hero
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Eli is easily as bad as the terrorists that he fights, to the point that he drives his own son into becoming one.
  • Knight Templar
  • Lawful Neutral
  • Moral Myopia: He has repeatedly violated Israel's treaties with the USA by ordering operations on US soil, which have resulted Mossad agents killing a number of American federal agents. When Tony is forced to kill a Mossad agent who resisted being arrested for the murders he committed under Eli's orders, Eli treats it as a horrible offense against Israel by the USA and tries to have Tony extradited.
  • Shell Shocked Senior: He shows weariness with the world of intrigue with every breath.
  • The Spymaster
  • The Woobie: To some people, to others a Complete Monster.
  • Was It Really Worth It?: Seems to be asking himself this. His actions ultimately turn both of his children against him.

Mike Franks (Muse Watson)

"Don't tempt me, Jethro! I ain't nearly drunk enough."

  • Anti-Hero: His retired status makes him both willing and able to go into moral grey areas that are too dark for the regular team.
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Cowboy Cop
  • Cynical Mentor: Seems to have been this to Gibbs
  • Grumpy Old Man: Image an older, grumpier Gibbs.
  • Heroic BSOD: It's implied in one episode that 9/11 caused him to retire.
    • It was implicitly stated to be the Khobar Towers bombing in '96, as well as the lukewarm response to it, that prompted him to retire. 9/11 was five years later.
    • He even stated that he was in Mexico when 9/11 happened, hence how he didn't know how the pursuit of bin Laden had gone.
  • Killed Off for Real:
  • Retired Badass


Jackie Vance (Paula Newsome)

"You are my partner now."

Lt. Col. Hollis Mann (Susanna Thompson)

"If this is going to turn into a pissing match, you'd better bring an umbrella."

Anthony Dinozzo Sr. (Robert Wagner)

  • Chivalrous Pervert: Ziva and Abby like him, which is saying something.
  • Con Man: He has been mooching off his extensive network of "friends" he made during his millionaire days for a very long time.
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Hidden Depths: Once managed to knock out a weapon dealer's bodyguard with one punch to the face.
  • Loveable Rogue
  • Silver Fox: Has the knack for charming any woman he crosses.

Shannon and Kelly Gibbs

  1. ↑ And then Dorneget reveals he forgot his service weapon.
  2. ↑ Once when chasing an overweight suspect who has a heart attack when climbing some stairs. She's chastised despite it not being her fault, but mostly out of frustration at losing a lead and it doesn't last the scene.
  3. ↑ And again, much more serious, when she punches an obnoxious suspect in the neck, causing him to drop dead despite her insisting that she does know her own strength and couldn't have killed him. Ducky finds a blood clot in his brain that could have been released and gotten lodged there by the punch, but ultimately rules Natural Causes.
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