While the conclusion of NCIS: Los Angeles after 14 seasons in 2023 doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll never see Daniela Ruah play Kensi Blye again, the actress has been contributing to the procedural franchise in a different way lately. At the start of January, it was announced that Ruah would direct an episode each of NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i, which prompted fun responses from people like Brian Dietzen and Erik Palladino. She has since finished her work on the former show and shared some sweet moments from the experience.
The public reportedly won’t get to see Ruah’s NCIS episode air until sometime in March, but we did get a sneak peek at her directorial work a little while back thanks to her Instagram page. Take a look at the actress seated in the director’s chair during an on-location portion of the shoot:
Daniela Ruah previously directed six episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, as well as an episode of the Spanish-language miniseries Contador for Mulhere, and now she’s among the people who’ve contributed to NCIS, which will premiere with its 21st season in just a few weeks. After completing her work on the flagship show, Ruah went back on Instagram to share more pictures of her time with this cast and crew, along with the following message (which was also translated into Spanish):
Special Agent Kensi Blye was first introduced on #NCIS, or as we lovingly call it… “The Mothership”. Last week I wrapped my first directed episode on #NCIS in its season 21 (wow!) and I had an absolute blast. It felt like home, the cast and crew are spectacular… If you like them on TV, know that they are even more wonderful in real life. Feeling nothing but gratitude… Next on the books… NCIS HAWAII! See you soon!
Much like how the JAG two-parter “Ice Queen” and “Meltdown” served as a backdoor pilot for NCIS all the way back in 2003, Kensi Blye debuted in the NCIS Season 6 two-parter Legend, alongside Chris O’Donnell’s G. Callen, LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna, Barrett Foa’s Eric Beale and Peter Cambor’s Nate Getz, among others. So as Daniela Ruah teased, she’s somewhat come full circle by being brought back to NCIS as a director. With that gig out of the way, she’s now headed off to shoot an episode of NCIS: Hawai’i Season 3, which is expected to premiere sometime in April.
As a result of last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes delaying production, both NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i’s new seasons will have shorter episode counts, with the former consisting of 10 episodes and the latter of 14 episodes. As far as NCIS goes, Season 21’s second episode will pay tribute to the late David McCallum, who played Donald “Ducky” Mallard during its first 20 seasons and passed away last September.
NCIS Season 21 and NCIS: Hawai’i Season 3 will both premiere Monday, February 12 on CBS, and you can revisit past seasons of both shows with a Paramount+ subscription. Use the 2024 TV schedule to see what other programming is dropping soon, and remember that the Gibbs-front prequel NCIS: Origins has scored a straight-to-series order for the 2024-2025 TV season.
