Paulie Peret, who played Abby Sciuto on NCIS for 15 seasons, has confirmed that her decision to leave Hollywood was not an act of retirement but an escape from danger. At 56, she is now speaking openly about safety complaints, assault allegations, and a fractured relationship with co-star Mark Harmon that she claims the studio tried to bury with a multi-million dollar settlement. Born in New Orleans on March 27, 1969, Peret spent her childhood moving across the country due to her father’s work in the railroad industry. By the time she was a teenager, she had lived in 14 different states.
She stated that Alabama always felt like her true home. Her upbringing made her adaptable, but also left her craving stability, a quality she says she never found in Hollywood. Before acting, Peret was set on a career in criminal justice. She earned degrees in sociology, psychology, and criminology and pursued a master’s degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Her academic focus was driven by a desire to understand why people hurt others. That path changed after she was the victim of a violent mugging in Atlanta in the 1980s, which cemented her commitment to advocating for victims. Her route into acting was accidental. After struggling financially in New York, bartending and handing out flyers, she moved to Los Angeles.
While walking dogs on Sunset Boulevard for $5 a day, she rescued a pitbull named Cece, whose bond would later become central to the clashes she had on the NCIS set. Her breakthrough came when she overheard a casting call for The Drew Carey Show and landed a small role. She later appeared in Frasier, Murder One, and the 1995 film The Price of Kissing, but still did not think of herself as a star. In 2003, Peret walked into the NCIS audition wearing no makeup, a plain white t-shirt, and sneakers.
She did not look like the goth forensic scientist CBS had imagined, but creator Don Bellisario reportedly pointed at her and said, “That’s her. ” She brought her natural energy, quick talking warmth, and an instinct to hug strangers to the role. To prepare, she studied with forensic experts, learning DNA analysis and lab protocol so her performances carried authenticity. By season 2, Abby Sciuto was a breakout character.
Viewers connected with the pigtailed, Caff-Pow-chugging scientist whose lab was filled with quirky props, including Bert the Farting Hippo. Producers expanded her role each season. In 2011, Guinness World Records named Peret the most popular actress in a TV crime drama, beating out stars from CSI and Law & Order. The show was regularly pulling in over 18 million viewers and even outperformed American Idol at its peak.
Off-screen, Peret built a reputation as an animal rescuer, working with organizations that paired service dogs with veterans suffering from PTSD. But by 2016, the atmosphere on set shifted. Mark Harmon, the show’s lead, often brought his rescue pitbull Dave to work. That year, the dog bit a crew member so severely that the man required 15 stitches, shutting down production for two hours.
Peret, who had devoted years to animal rescue, was not angry at the dog. She was horrified that the studio allowed the animal back after such a serious attack. She demanded that CBS ensure the dog never returned, but the network sided with Harmon. From that point forward, Peret had a clause inserted into her season 15 contract that she would never appear in a scene with Harmon again.
The production restructured filming schedules and used editing tricks to keep the split invisible to fans. Even in her final episode in 2018, she and Harmon were never in the same building. By her last season, the tension was unbearable. Peret filed three separate HR complaints with CBS about safety, documenting what she described as unsafe conditions and physical threats on set.
In 2018, she posted cryptic tweets mentioning multiple physical assaults and a powerful machine that forced her silence. She never named anyone, but the speculation pointed at Harmon, who remained silent. Peret reportedly hired a private investigator to document safety violations, then pressed CBS into negotiations. The network quietly paid her a settlement estimated between $5 and $9 million, tied to strict non-disclosure clauses.
At the time, CBS was already under fire for misconduct payouts, including a nearly $10 million settlement to actress Eliza Dushku for harassment on another show. Peret’s case raised eyebrows because of its similarity in size. The official story told the public that Peret retired. Those close to the situation saw it differently, framing her exit as an escape from a workplace that had become toxic.
After her farewell episode in 2018, which drew over 15 million viewers, Peret left Hollywood. On July 7, 2020, she tweeted a brightly colored message that simply said, “I’m free. ” She told fans she would only answer to God, animals, and plants. She turned down lucrative offers, including guest roles on Law & Order: SVU and The Good Doctor, saying she was no longer chasing fame but safety.
In September 2021, Peret suffered a massive ischemic stroke. The right side of her body went numb, and within minutes she was rushed to the emergency room. She lost her ability to speak for 36 hours. Her doctors told her they did not expect her to survive past 5 p.
m. that day. Her first words when speech returned were sarcastic: “Dude, seriously? ” She credits her rescue dog, Rosie, with saving her life by pawing at her and waking her in time to reach the hospital.
After her recovery, Peret began retreating twice a year to a Benedictine monastery in Big Sur. There she learned silence, prayer, and patience, developing a simple prayer she still recites: “Thank you for everything. Forgive me for everything. ” She credited those retreats with helping her feel whole again.
Peret’s charitable acts were largely hidden from the public. In 2015, she spent an entire day with a young Make-A-Wish cancer patient named Christina Flores, who adored Abby Sciuto. When Christina passed away weeks later, Peret paid for the entire funeral and the family’s travel expenses out of her own pocket. The story only surfaced because a relative tweeted about it before quickly deleting the post.
Peret never commented. She also created a web comic called Lab Babble under the name P, featuring Abby’s adventures with Bert the Farting Hippo. She donated every cent of ad revenue to animal shelters across the country. She twice turned down offers from Playboy, $750,000 in 2007 and nearly $1 million in 2013, because she did not want to participate in anything that objectified women.
She produced the documentary Studio One Forever, about America’s first gay disco, premiering it at the 2023 Outfest LA Film Festival. For years, Peret remained silent about the reasons behind her NCIS exit, bound by legal agreements. Now she confirms that her departure was not about seeking peace but escaping danger. She has said she filed multiple reports that were ignored and that the studio’s decisions left her no choice but to walk away.
She no longer considers the rumors gossip. She calls them the truth. In 2023, her will was leaked in a Los Angeles probate filing. Her estate, worth more than $22 million, was left to no family or friends.
Instead, 60 percent was directed to no-kill animal shelters and 40 percent to the Innocence Project, which works to free the wrongfully convicted. She also left instructions for her ashes: half to be scattered near a dog park, and half at the rescue center where she adopted her first dog. Peret’s legacy may be defined by Abby Sciuto, the caffeinated goth scientist who turned science into heart. But Peret insists she was never chasing celebrity.
She was chasing meaning. She chose integrity over contracts, faith over fear, and animals over money. In confirming the rumors, she offers not bitterness but truth, stating that an actress who embodied justice on one screen proved she lived it off-screen as well.