Although Pauley Perrette played the role of the quirky, crime-solving forensic scientist Abby Sciuto on NCIS, she might not be that different from her character in real life.
In fact, she has many things in common with Abby, and strives to devote much of her time to helping others.
Today, Perrette has left the world of crime solving on TV – following several horrifying incidents – in order to do more comedy. We think her new look really suits her.
Pauley Perrette has done plenty in her life. She’s a well-educated woman who found herself landing quite abruptly in the world of comedy. Later, she became a huge star on NCIS as brilliant forensic scientist Abby Sciuto, known to millions of people all over the world.
Pauley Perrette
Pauley went from being a good actress to a great one, getting all the acknowledgement that she deserved along the way. However, her 15 years on NCIS were also marred by some negative incidents – not only did she have a stalker for more than 10 years, but she was forced to exit the show in a distasteful way.
No matter what happened, though, Pauley Perrette came out a stronger person. Today, she’s back on the comedy scene, where she loves it the most.
This is her story, from a southern state upbringing to landing a big role in one of TV’s hottest shows.
Pauley Perrette – childhood
It’s tough for Pauley Perrette to say precisely where she grew up. She was born March 27, 1969 in New Orleans, Louisiana, but lived all over the south during her childhood. She spent time in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, before finally going to high school in Georgia.
Ever since she was a young kid, Perrette’s been interested in crime stories, describing herself as “completely obsessed”. When she grew up, she had dreams of being in a rock ‘n’ roll band, working with animals or becoming an FBI agent.
“I lived in Georgia at the time of the Atlanta child murders, and I was around the same age of those kids, and I lived right off the Chattahoochee River,” Pauley Perrette said of the series of murders that were committed in Atlanta between 1979 and 1981.
“I was very young then, but I was obsessed with that case. Then I got really obsessed with Jonestown. I was way too young to be obsessed with these things, but I would every cut out every article — I really don’t like bad guys.”
And her being drawn to criminals seems to be a subject that’s pretty much defined parts of Perrette’s life.
For Pauley, the show was huge. It was her first really big role, and since the role she was playing was crucial for the show, she naturally became a star. For her part, she absolutely loved the character.
Proud of her work
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Perrette talked about how proud she was concerning her job.
“The cast and the crew here, we love our jobs so much, and we love our show,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “We’re all like huge fans of our show. It is awesome to be at No. 1. [The show is] No. 1 scripted and around the world. That is fantastic, but what it means to us is that we get to keep doing this.”
Pauley starred in a staggering 354 episodes of NCIS. During her time on the show, she also did some other work. Actually, Abby Sciuto’s character appeared in both NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS New Orleans, where Perrette starred in a total of four episodes.
Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Though Pauley loved her job at NCIS, there were some aspects of her life that weren’t so great.
In 2011, she announced that she was dating Thomas Arklie, a former British Marine and actor. Together, the couple made a pact that they weren’t going to get married until same-sex marriage was legal.
“We have been engaged for four years because we worked for a federal, marriage-equality law, and that Friday [when same sex marriage became legal] was the strangest day,” she told Fox in 2016.
“My life as a civil rights activist and as a straight ally has been marching, speaking, donating, marching, donating, speaking, marching, speaking, rally, holding poster signs, and then it was over. It was so weird.”
In 2019, Pauley and Arklie decided to split. The same year she wrote on her Twitter that she would live in celibate and didn’t want a man in her life.
“I’m no one’s girlfriend. I’m a solo act,” Perrette said.