Vanessa Lachey to Lead ‘NCIS: Hawai’i’ Spinoff

The latest addition to CBS’ NCIS franchise has found its lead.

Vanessa Lachey will star in NCIS: Hawai’i, becoming the first female lead of a show in the long-running franchise. Yasmine Al-Bustami and Jason Antoon have also signed on as series regulars.

CBS gave a straight-to-series order to the spinoff, which had been in the works for several months, on April 23. Chris Silber, showrunner of the soon-to-end NCIS: New Orleans, will move to the new show, writing and executive producing alongside fellow New Orleans veteran Jan Nash and Matt Bosack (SEAL Team). Larry Teng (Nancy Drew) will direct and executive produce.

Lachey (Fox’s Call Me Kat, BH90210) will play Jane Tennant, the first woman to be named special agent in charge of NCIS’ Pearl Harbor office. A woman in a male-dominated profession, she’s thrived in a system that’s pushed back every step of the way through equal parts confidence and strategy. She’s also a mother raising her children mostly on her own and has to balance her duty to her kids and her country.

Al-Bustami (The Chosen, SWAT) will play Lucy, the confident junior member of Tennant’s team who’s eager to be the first to find evidence, a workaround in the bureaucracy or to tackle a suspect. Antoon (Claws) plays Ernie, the team’s cyber intelligence specialist whose wide-ranging interests also include history, literature and all things Hawaiian.

Lachey is repped by UTA, Mosaic and Morris Yorn. Al-Bustami is repped by Stride Management, TalentWorks and attorney Mark Temple. Antoon is repped by Viking Entertainment and BRS/GAGE.

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