Two weeks ahead of her NCIS debut, actress Emily Wickersham has been promoted to series regular status on the CBS drama — and we’ve got a first look at the new addition to Gibbs’ team.
Filling the void left by Agent Ziva David’s abrupt departure at the start of Season 11, Wickersham’s character, NSA Analyst Eleanor “Ellie” Bishop, is described as “a mysterious mixture of analytic brilliance, fierce determination and idealism,” someone who specializes in international threat assessment and global preparation.
Bishop will be introduced in the Nov. 19 episode of TV’s most watched drama when it is discovered that SecNav was bugged during a confidential briefing — a security breach Bishop predicted two years ago in a threat analysis report. Working side-by-side with Gibbs & Co., Bishop will help determine who is behind the crime.
Explaining the new character’s creation, showrunner Gary Glasberg tells TVLine, “What drew me to Bishop is how she views the world. She looks at things in a global way — and that’s true of personal lives as well as the work.” Meaning, “She will shed some light on everybody, on who our people are, as well on the way that politics and terrorism and crimes are handled. She possesses an interesting mind, an intellectual, smart way to approach doing what this team does — not with kicks and punches and knocking down doors but by really thinking. She’s very much a thinker.”
Wickersham’s previous TV credits include several episodes of FX’s The Bridge (as Annabeth Gish’s wicked stepdaughter) and The Sopranos.