NCIS guest star gets full-time role

There’s a new queen of the NCIS lab.

CBS has announced that recurring guest star Diona Reasonover will join the cast full-time as the new forensic scientist in Season 16, which went into production last week. She replaces original cast member Pauley Perrette, who left the series in May.

Reasonover, 26, made her debut as Kasie Hines, a graduate student and trained forensic scientist whom medical examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” (David McCallum) met while teaching in New York, in a three-episode guest arc that began in March.

Though he originally hired her to serve an assistant for a book project about past cases, he ended up bringing her back to Washington when one of those cases was reopened. After Abby (Perrette) resigned, Gibbs (Mark Harmon) hired her as a temporary replacement. The deal has now been made permanent.

Reasonover’s acting credits include Amazon’s Transparent and the TBS barbershop comedy Clipped and Hulu’s Future Man. She was also a writer on Hulu’s Emmy-nominated political travelogue I Love You America, starring Sarah Silverman, and TruTV’s Adam Ruins Everything.

The Detroit native studied at Oberlin College in Ohio and trained with improvisation groups such as Second City Hollywood and Upright Citizens Brigade, where she impersonated Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, two Real Housewives of Atlanta and one of her show-biz idols, Whoopi Goldberg.

Reasonover’s casting comes two months after Perrette claimed that the network had silenced her from explaining the exact reason for leaving after 15 years, hinting that a crime was involved.

She also said that “multiple physical assaults” had taken place but didn’t directly tie them to the show or network.

In a series of tweets, Perrette said she had been trying to protect the show’s crew and their jobs, referred to false stories being spread about her and blamed a “very powerful publicity ‘machine’ “for keeping her silent.

CBS Television Studios later said it had worked with Perrette to rectify an unspecified set “concern” she brought last year.

“Pauley Perrette had a terrific run on NCIS and we are all going to miss her,” the statement read. “Over a year ago, Pauley came to us with a workplace concern.

“We took the matter seriously and worked with her to find a resolution.

“We are committed to a safe work environment on all our shows.”