Abby Sciuto is TV's perkiest goth, a brilliant scientist, and a shameless caffeine addict. We're
here to give you the full story behind NCIS' unforgettable forensic scientist,
from her trademark pigtails to the reason her actress departed the show for good.
While Abby might be well known for her cheery disposition, she's also a serious-minded,
forensics-loving crime solver. This balance feels very natural, and it's no mystery as to why:
Her actress, Pauley Perrette, came to the show with a degree in criminal justice.
She had planned to go into law enforcement before she got bit by the acting bug.
Early roles on shows like The Drew Carey Show, Jesse,
and Dawson's Creek finally culminated in 2003, when she landed the role of Abby.
Abby's first appearance comes in a two-part story in JAG's eighth season.
After a body is found near the Potomac River, the JAG team calls in the investigative unit
at NCIS to help them uncover the truth of this suspicious death.
Our introduction to Abby is remarkable to revisit: The character debuts nearly
fully-formed. While we learn more about her as the show's many seasons wind on,
Abby's most distinctive tics and trademarks are all on display in her very first outing.
"But for a dinner… Get me an ID in two and I'll make it cafe atlantico."
The first scene featuring Abby shows her calmly watching some guys blast a
mannequin with a shotgun. Later, when she's detailing some pretty gruesome x-rays,
she shares the particulars of the damage in a detached, almost bored-sounding deadpan.
"That's a cross section of what a 12 gauge did to an L3 to L5."
Right from the beginning, she's unlike any other character on television.
Though Abby's aesthetic affectations might lead a viewer to assume she's gloomy and brooding, Abby
is actually incredibly upbeat and happy. Though she drives an Addams Family-esque Ford Model A,
the death investigator is an unusually bubbly type.
"He wears $3000 Italian sunglasses,
and has Justin Beiber in his hard drive. Can't we arrest him for that?"
Perrette has said that this perkiness was very much a choice, and actually modeled after a dog.
"I patterned everything [Abby] does physically after this rescue dog that
I had named CiCi. [...] So, the way Abby stands — she stands very
upright — and even the way she cocks her head. Everything is done exactly like this dog."
Abby's energy is all natural, too:
"For the first six years it was Hawaiian Punch, [...] but then I
quit eating and drinking refined sugar, so now I have unsweetened
cranberry juice. [It tasted like] five billion percent raw cranberries."
She loves extreme music, all-black outfits, and spooky dolls. But there is one thing she
regrets about her deathly lifestyle: A prominent spider web tattoo on her neck.
Perette doesn't have to reach too deep to find that feeling in herself. The actress
has been open about how much she hates having the tattoo applied before filming every day.
"Every day that I come to work, I have to prepare myself for the
dreaded putting on of the neck tattoo. I absolutely hate it."
Perrette added that she tried to get the writers to add a tattoo removal
arc to Abby's story, but they wouldn't budge.
This is far from the only physical irritation that Perette went through to play the character:
Dyeing her hair black once led to a disastrous allergic reaction:
"I dyed my hair on Wednesday, and I went to work at five in the morning on a Thursday. [...] I
would wake up the next morning and my head was getting bigger and bigger".
It would be a real shame if Perrette was putting all her
actorly effort into a half-formed character.
Luckily, the writers of NCIS have been able to give Abby quite a full life over 15 seasons.
Abby is the adopted child of deaf parents, therefore making her proficient in sign language.
Abby's biological parents are deceased, though the manner in which they passed is never discussed.
Born in New Orleans, the frequent moves her parents made have given
her a wide breadth of knowledge about the southern United States.
Her interest in forensics came from one of the places she lived as a young girl.
At one point, her family lived next door to a wrecking yard. She found herself
wondering how the cars arriving at the yard in such a twisted state became so mangled,
and eventually learned about the field of forensics.
Abby threw herself into her studies, graduating from LSU with full honors and a bachelor's degree
in sociology, criminology, and psychology. She then earned her master's from Georgia State in
criminology and forensic science. It is also implied that she got a PhD in chemistry at
several points throughout the series. Abby was quickly snatched up by the NCIS team
after graduating, becoming an integral part of nearly all their investigations.
Abby tends to work alone. She has good reason to be wary of partners, though.
At one point in the series, the NCIS team takes on another forensics expert named Chip Sterling.
He works as Abby's assistant, though she grumbles about the intrusion.
The team's senior field agent, Tony DiNozzo , jokes about Sterling's relatively minor screw-ups.
In time, Chip launches a plot to frame Tony for murder,
apparently holding a grudge against him from a time before he was on the NCIS team.
After this plot is revealed, Chip tries to kill Abby to avoid being captured. After
avoiding her own death, Abby asks her director if she can work alone from that point forward.
Chip Sterling's attack wasn't the last time someone would make an attempt
on Abby Sciuto's life. A hitman comes after Abby in the 15th season of NCIS.
Her life is only saved by the intervention of an MI6 agent named Clayton Reeves. After tricking
the man who wanted her dead into revealing his identity, Abby opts to retire from the NCIS.
Though Abby spent 15 seasons with the team, she says her goodbye off screen.
She leaves her bosses a note to let them know she's gone, and heads to the UK.
That's where the series claims Abby is to this day.
In the real world, Perrette's departure from the show was a little more complicated than Abby's.
Abby's goodbye was written as a way around having to put actor Mark Harmon
and Perrette on set at the same time.
Perrette claims that Harmon was physically abusive to his costars and that he is the reason
she will never reprise her role on the series. In a revealing social media post,
Perrette made it clear that she's afraid of Harmon.
"NO I AM NOT COMING BACK! EVER! I have nightmares
about it. [...] I have a new show that is SAFE AND HAPPY!"
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