{"id":1888,"date":"2025-02-21T18:34:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T18:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2025-02-21T18:34:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T18:34:52","slug":"rocky-carroll-has-been-on-ncis-for-over-15-years-and-he-shared-what-makes-him-feel-excited-about-keeping-that-impressive-streak-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=1888","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Carroll Has Been On NCIS For Over 15 Years, And He Shared What Makes Him Feel \u2018Excited\u2019 About Keeping That Impressive Streak Going"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rocky Carroll is the third-longest-running actor currently still on NCIS, following behind Sean Murray and Brian Dietzen. Introduced in the middle of NCIS Season 5 and taking over as the agency\u2019s director at the end of the season, his character, Leon Vance, has remained the popular CBS show\u2019s main authority figure for the entirety of that time. So with NCIS Season 22, which is airing now on the 2025 TV schedule, marking Carroll\u2019s 18th season on the show, Carroll discussed with CinemaBlend what makes him feel \u201cexcited\u201d about still contributing to the series.<\/p>\n

During an interview went over his directorial work on \u201cBaker\u2019s Men,\u201d how Vance feels about Deputy Director LaRoche and how the door\u2019s been left open for Vance\u2019s girlfriend to return someday, I also wanted to learn from Rocky Carroll what keeps him around on NCIS. He started off by telling me:<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s such an anomaly, especially in my industry, to work on one show, for me almost two decades now. And a lot of these guys, especially on the crew, they started together on JAG, so they\u2019ve got more than two decades together. For me, and I just found this out because I wasn\u2019t sure when people say, \u2018Hey, what season did you start directing?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t know, sometimes they all kind of run together.\u2019 But since season 12, now that I\u2019ve been working on both sides of the camera, I have very unique relationships not only with the cast, but also with the crew.<\/p>\n

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Yes, in case any of you had forgotten, NCIS spun out of JAG, which ran from 1995 to 2005 and, like the entire NCIS franchise, can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription. So it\u2019s remarkable that there are crew members who\u2019ve far surpassed working in this procedural world than Rocky Carroll, but that\u2019s not to undersell what he\u2019s accomplished on this show. In addition to his long tenure as Leon Vance, \u201cBaker\u2019s Man\u201d marked his 25th time directing on NCIS, which has allowed him to become well-acquainted with the behind-the-scenes talent. He continued:<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re an actor on a series, there\u2019s so many people behind the scenes, post-production, effects, wardrobe, all the people\u2026 you know them because you see them, but you don\u2019t really see what they do day in and day out. I have the very rare pleasure of being able to not only work with the guys in front of the camera, but also the guys behind the camera.<\/p>\n

Rocky Carroll began directing on NCIS with the Season 12 episode \u201cWe Build, We Fight,\u201d and that\u2019s allowed him to diversify his work, contributing both on and off camera. He capped off this portion of our conversation by sharing he has another episode coming up in Season 22 where he\u2019ll be back at the helm:<\/p>\n

So I know the guys in the art department. I know the guys in postproduction. I know the guys in editing personally, because I get to work with them all. So I think that for me is the biggest joy about still doing this\u2026 When I go back to Santa Clarita on Monday, I\u2019m going back as a director, and I won\u2019t be working in front of the camera. I\u2019ll be spending six hours of that day going to department meetings and putting together the next episode. So that\u2019s the thing that keeps me going and makes me feel excited about doing this job.<\/p>\n

Rocky Carroll has been able to do a lot with Leon Vance over the years, from forging a strong bond with Mark Harmon\u2019s Leroy Jethro Gibbs through tragedy, to establishing a different kind of dynamic with Gary Cole\u2019s Alden Parker after reaching a mentally healthier place in his life. But the acting is only part of the equation for Carroll on NCIS, as he\u2019s also enjoyed directing and collaborating with people off camera. It\u2019s good to see this combination has given him such fulfillment and the willingness to continue lending his talents to one of the most popular broadcast TV programs.<\/p>\n

New episodes of NCIS air Mondays at 9 pm ET on CBS. We should learn in the coming months if Season 23 is happening or not, but if it does, chances are strong we can expect Rocky Carroll to keep his impressive streak going.<\/p>\n

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Rocky Carroll is the third-longest-running actor currently still on NCIS, following behind Sean Murray and Brian Dietzen. Introduced in the middle of NCIS Season 5 and taking… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1890,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}