Figures from the CSI franchise

The logo of the original CSI: On the trail of the perpetrators

This article describes the key figures in the CSI franchise . These descriptions refer to the characters from the series CSI: On the trail of the perpetrators , CSI: Miami and CSI: NY .

CSI: On the trail of the perpetrators

Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom

William Petersen as Gil Grissom

Portrayed by William Petersen

Also called Gil by his colleagues, is the head of the night shift at the Las Vegas Crime Lab. He is an excellent crime scene investigator and leads his team with great dedication. In Gil's life, his job always comes first. Although he is a very personable man and there is even a team member who sees him as more than just a superior, his private life is usually neglected. His mother is deaf, which is why he knows sign language . When he was nine years old, his father died, who fell asleep on the sofa after work and never woke up. Gil was the youngest coroner in the city of Los Angeles. He studied biology and his hobby is entomology . He also enjoys riding the roller coaster and solving crossword puzzles . He began a relationship with Sara Sidle, with intermittent lack of contact with her when she left the team and Las Vegas. Before that, however, he made her a marriage proposal in episode 4 of season 8, which she accepted with a smile. This may have been strange for some viewers, as it was pointed out several times that Sara is not a wedding fan. In the 10th episode of the 9th season, the Grissom actor William Petersen got out as an actor, but he stayed with the series as an executive producer . At the end of this episode, he traveled to Sara in a research camp in the jungle of Costa Rica. In the first episode of season 10 it is revealed that he married Sara. In episode 13 of the 11th season, Grissom assisted in a case via webcam. In season 13, Sara tells the team that Grissom broke up with her. In the graduation film, he helps the team with a case and when it is over he meets up with Sara, with whom he drives off on his boat.

Catherine Willows

Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows

portrayed by Marg Helgenberger

Is the longest serving after Gil Grissom and longs for a leading position at the CSI. She is a single mother. Her ex-husband is violently killed in the third season, but it has not yet been possible for Catherine to convict the perpetrator. Her daughter in particular suffers from the fact that she lacks a father figure, which puts a strain on the relationship between her and her mother.
Before Catherine started at CSI, she worked as an erotic dancer in Las Vegas to support her husband and daughter Lindsey. Catherine has a very good relationship with casino boss Sam Braun, who, as she learns in Season 3, is her father. She always tries to reconcile her professional and private life, which she does not always succeed. In her cases, she often listens to her instincts and not just the facts, which repeatedly leads to controversies with Grissom.
Furthermore, she seems a little jealous when she learns of Warrick's sudden wedding, after situations between the two of them in previous episodes that could have brought them closer. When Grissom leaves the CSI, she becomes the new night shift supervisor.
Due to the circumstances surrounding Nate Haskell's death and the departure of Ray Langston, she is demoted to a normal CSI again. Your successor as supervisor and new employee in the laboratory will be DB Russell.
Catherine leaves the CSI and joins the FBI in episode 12 of season 12, but makes a guest appearance in season 14 in episode 300 where she helps the team solve a 14-year-old case. In the graduation film, she helps the team with another case and at the end of it comes back to the CSI in Las Vegas, where she takes on DB Russell's position as he is moving to Washington.

Sara Sidle

Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle

Portrayed by Jorja Fox

Is an old friend of Grissom's whom he calls in from San Francisco to join the team after Holly Gribbs is murdered. She comes from a difficult family background. Her father, an alcoholic, abused her mother, who one day stabbed him as a result. Sara and her brother then spent the rest of their youth in nursing homes. Still, Sara managed to graduate from Harvard University . She is very ambitious and, like Grissom, lives almost exclusively for her job. Sara feels drawn to him and also makes him concrete advances, but he keeps blocking. He is the only one of her colleagues who knows what tragedy unfolded in her childhood. During the series, she developed an incipient alcohol problem, which is why Grissom advises her to take a break. After her return, she is much better. At an unknown point in time, Sara began a relationship with Grissom. After she was kidnapped, the psychological consequences are so severe that she later leaves the team and Las Vegas. After the death of Warrick Brown, Sara temporarily returns to Las Vegas and Grissom, but without formally returning to the CSI team. In the first episode of season 10, it is revealed that she married Grissom. She has now returned to the CSI. From season 11 she is one of the main members of the CSI again. In season 13, the difficulties in her relationship with Grissom are a recurring topic and in episode 15 we learn from Sara that Grissom has broken up with her. In the graduation film she meets up with Grissom again and drives off with him in his boat.

Nicholas "Nick" Stokes

Portrayed by George Eads

Like his colleagues, he is a passionate investigator. At the beginning of the series, there is strong competition between him and Warrick, but the two quickly become best friends. Nick is originally from Texas , where his father, a judge, and mother, a lawyer, still live. He is the youngest of seven children. In the course of the series, Nick repeatedly gets into traumatic situations, for example in the second season he is threatened by a stalker. In addition, he is kidnapped, buried alive and attacked by fire ants in the finale of the fifth season (the double episode Grave Silence directed by Quentin Tarantino ) . Even in his childhood, at the age of nine, he had to experience stressful experiences when he was abused by his babysitter. At the beginning of the tenth season he is promoted to the assistant supervisor of the night shift, he loses the post due to Ray Langston's solo effort at the beginning of the 12th season. After Warrick's killer appears in the season finale of season 12, he is so angry that he decides to leave the CSI, which he does in the final episode of season 12. After being found drunk at the beginning of the 13th season and a fight with the police begins, he returns in the first episode of the 13th season. Nick is leaving the CSI at the end of Season 15 and becomes head of the CSI in San Diego. He does not appear in the graduation film.

Warrick Brown

Portrayed by Gary Dourdan

Was a dedicated crime scene investigator and the only one on the team who was born and raised in Las Vegas. At the beginning of the series he suffers from gambling addiction, which makes him blackmailable. When he is asked to rig a case to get a guilty rapist released, he turns to Grissom, who helps him deal with the problem once and for all. Since that day, Warrick has almost always resisted the lure of gambling. Since a colleague (Holly Gribbs) was murdered through his negligence at the time, he has changed and has become more cautious. When a case is very troubling for him and he is about to relapse, his colleague and best friend Nick stands by his side and prevents him from making a mistake. At the beginning of the 6th season, surprisingly and without telling anyone, he marries his girlfriend Tina, a nurse. They split up in the second episode of season eight, and in the first episode of season nine, the team finds out that he has become the father of a son. He is gunned down by the corrupt Undersheriff McKeen in the final episode of the eighth season and dies in the first episode of the ninth season.

James "Jim" Brass

Portrayed by Paul Guilfoyle

Jim is a captain with the Las Vegas Police Department. He came to Las Vegas in 1988, was also a CSI detective prior to his time as a detective, and wasn't exactly happy when he had to quit CSI to join the homicide squad. He is divorced and has a daughter, Ellie (Jersey), who has gotten on the wrong track and works as a prostitute in LA. She is not his biological daughter, but comes from an affair with his dead ex-wife, with whom he worked for the New Jersey police before his time in Vegas. At the beginning of the series he was the night shift supervisor. After the death of Holly Gribbs, he is transferred to the homicide squad and Gil Grissom succeeds him. Although he didn't like his position with the CSI, at the beginning of the series he is indignant about his demotion to detective.

He is absolutely loyal to his colleagues and friends from the CSI and is even ready to withhold or withhold evidence in order to exonerate or help someone. For example, in the season 11 finale, he disappears his own evidence to exonerate Ray Langston, who is suspected of murder.

At the end of the 14th season, his daughter tries to kill herself, he quits his job and leaves the series, but he helps the team with a case in the final film.

Greg Sanders

Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders

Portrayed by Eric Szmanda

Is responsible for the DNA analyzes in the CSI laboratory and the somewhat weird prankster of the troops. He is very proud of his home country Norway. He wants nothing more than to be transferred from the laboratory to the field service, which happens in the fifth season. Since then, he has been much more serious, he wears less freaky clothes and otherwise behaves more calmly. He has a degree in Chemistry from Stanford University .

Dr. Albert "Al" Robbins

Portrayed by Robert David Hall

Is the coroner responsible for examining the body with every murder. He is a whole generation older than most and is always treated with respect and counted as part of the team.

David Hodges

Portrayed by Wallace Langham

As a lab technician, like Greg, is responsible for DNA analysis and other things. He's a bit eccentric and does a good job despite everything. In the course of the 9th season it is revealed that he feels strongly drawn to his colleague Wendy Simms. He is also a big fan of the science fiction series Astro-Quest, which is based on the Star Trek universe.

David Phillips

Portrayed by David Berman

Is the coroner on the scene and sometimes does autopsies when Doc Robbins doesn't have time. He becomes the main character in the 10th season premiere. He is married. In the 17th episode of the 13th season he became a father.

Dr. Raymond Langston

Portrayed by Laurence Fishburne

Can already be seen in the 9th episode of the 9th season. He is holding a seminar about a serial killer. But after he realized at the end of the 10th episode that he was not made to teach people, Grissom offers him a job at the CSI, because there would be a vacancy soon. When Grissom leaves the CSI, Langston joins the team as a new member. He is quite inexperienced at the beginning and cannot secure a fingerprint properly, for example. But as the season progresses, he manages to integrate better into the team. His professional career is eventful. He was initially a surgeon until a colleague killed patients in his hospital and thus practiced euthanasia. After this was arrested, Langston was first retrained as a pathologist and later as a psychologist. In addition to his work at the CSI, he continues to volunteer as a doctor in an emergency room. He is very committed and even takes further training courses while on vacation. For this reason, he was promoted to CSI rank 2 after a short time. Towards the end of the 11th season he hunts the serial killer Nate Haskell on his own, whom he then kills. Then Langston is asked by the service inspector whether it was murder or self-defense. He leaves this question unanswered and leaves the service for the CSI team.

Wendy Simms

Portrayed by Liz Vassey

Laboratory assistant. She is good friends with Hodges, who is in love with her. In the 2nd episode of the 11th season, she leaves Las Vegas and thus also the CSI. She's going to Portland.

Sofia Curtis

Portrayed by Louise Lombard

Appears in the series for the first time in season 5, but it is implied that she has been working the day shift for a long time and was Ecklie's right-hand man there. He instructs her to re-examine some old cases of Grissom. However, when she cannot find negligence as hoped, Ecklie demotes her under a pretext and she does not get the day shift as expected. Since she is dissatisfied with her situation, she switches to the "real" police at the beginning of the 6th season and is currently working on the homicide squad.

Riley Adams

Portrayed by Lauren Lee Smith

She joins the team as a replacement for Warrick Brown and Sara Sidle at the beginning of season nine. At first, she still has to fight to be integrated into the team as the team is still mourning Warrick. She makes a lot of jokes herself and is more of a funny nature. Your parents are both psychologists. Between seasons 9 and 10, she resigned from CSI, claiming that Catherine was unable to lead the team. She also had problems with the way some of her colleagues worked, especially Raymond Langston.

DB Russel

Portrayed by Ted Danson

DB (Diebenkorn) Russel is the new Supervisor at the beginning of Season 12 after Catherine Willows lost her title to Ray Langston's going it alone. With his calm and at the same time fatherly manner, he is the calm pole in the team. His character resembles Gil Grissom. He is married and has grandchildren. After the end of CSI: Vegas and the death of Julie Finlay, he moved to Washington for the Cybercrime Division and appeared there in CSI: Cyber from season 2 .

Morgan Brody

portrayed by Elisabeth Harnois

She helps the team chase Nate Haskel in episode 21 of season 11. However, after he was killed by Ray Langston and she secretly passed the evidence to the CSI team, she lost her job as a forensic scientist at the LAPD and came to Las Vegas at the beginning of season 12. Her father is Conrad Ecklie.

Julie "Finn" Finlay

Portrayed by Elisabeth Shue

Julie Finlay, called Finn, has been a crime scene investigator since season 12. She succeeded Catherine Willows, whose actress had left the series after twelve years. Finlay doesn't shy away from telling people the truth straight to the face. In line with her professional history, she worked for DB Russell in Seattle, where they eventually fired her. At the end of the 15th and final season, Finlay is kidnapped, attacked and found lifeless in a trunk. She suffered serious injuries from the attack and is now in a coma. In the season's final film, DB Russel mentions that Julie Finlay never woke up from her coma and died. In CSI Cyber ​​#Hospital Failure #Patient Death, Julie Finlay is shown lying in the hospital. The hospital is hacked and patients are killed by compromised devices. DB is working in the FBI's cyber crime department at the time and sees her in the hospital.

CSI: Miami

Horatio Caine

Portrayed by David Caruso

David Caruso on the set in Los Angeles

Horatio is named after the poet Horatio Alger . He is an explosives expert and the head of the CSI division of the Miami-Dade Police Department. In the fourth season it is announced that Horatio has been working in Miami for ten years, but previously worked for the NYPD in New York and then moved to Miami. When he was seventeen, he chose a career in the police force. At that time his mother was murdered by his father. Horatios' unsuccessful attempt to save his mother, in turn, his father did not survive. Therefore, 20 years later, a New York public prosecutor is hunting down Horatio again when he supports Det. Mac Taylor in a case (see episodes 4.07 and 4.08 and CSI: New York episode 2.07). Horatio had a difficult childhood as he was regularly beaten by his father. His colleagues only call him by his first name, and Eric often only uses his initial "H" in English.

Family plays an important role for him, which is why he looked after his sister-in-law and colleague Yelina and her son, his nephew Raymond Caine Jr., until his brother's return. Horatio and Yelina used to be a couple before she settled on his brother. Horatio's brother Raymond was an undercover agent for the drug squad. In order to gain the trust of the drug dealers, Ray also used drugs himself and became addicted to them. Horatio resists these allegations and tries to protect his brother's reputation. He thinks (until the end of Season 2) that his brother Raymond was killed in a police operation. Ray's death was staged by the FBI to allow him to continue working as an undercover agent. At the end of season 3, Horatio finally meets him again. When Raymond is actually killed in 5.01, Horatio finds him and Ray dies in his arms.

His trademarks are his red hair and sunglasses, which he takes off and on several times during an episode. In the first two seasons he wore a 9mm Beretta Cougar as a service weapon, and since the 3rd season he has been using a SIG Sauer P229 . He's also often standing sideways to the person he's talking to, putting his hands on his hips and tilting his head. Horatio has a lot of charm, dry humor and is well received by women with his dachshund look. He can hardly be disturbed by anything and does not let a criminal go, no matter how well he is protected by the state. He is also fluent in Spanish.

Through the supposed drug purchases from Eric Delko, he gets to know his sister Marisol. Later they fall in love and get married. After the murder of Marisol, Horatio wants revenge and at the beginning of the 5th season flies with Delko to Brazil to kill Antonio Riaz, Marisol's murderer. There he meets Yelina again, she tells him that his brother Raymond works in Riaz's drug ring. When Horatio found Ray, Riaz had already seriously injured him. Horatio can no longer save him, but when Eric catches Riaz a short time later and there is a knife fight, Horatio steps in and stabs Riaz. He also learns that Ray Jr. also works with Riaz to save his father without knowing anything about his death. Together with three other boys, Ray jr. brought to the US as a drug courier. There Horatio can finally track him down and save him at the last moment. So he keeps both his vow of revenge and his promise to Raymond to look after his son. In the opening episode of the 6th season, Horatio learns that he himself has a now almost grown-up son who grew up in several foster families and got on the wrong track.

At the end of the last episode of the 6th season, Horatio is assassinated, the viewer is left in the dark whether Horatio will survive or not. In episode 1 of the 7th season it becomes clear that the assassination attempt was faked with the help of Ryan Wolfe in order to bring down an arms dealer ring.

During the ninth season, Horatio tends more and more to torture suspects or to use harsher interrogation methods. In season ten, he even fails to help a convicted pedophile after shooting him. Ultimately, he dies because he could no longer hold his own and fell.

In the ninth season finale, Horatio is gunned down, but survives, as can be seen in the 10th season premiere.

Calleigh Duquesne

Portrayed by Emily Procter

She is the ballistics specialist and is very knowledgeable about weapons. She was nicknamed "Bullet Girl" during her time as a police officer in New Orleans . Her father is a lawyer with alcohol problems who has tried many times to get away from alcohol. But he keeps relapsing and getting Calleigh into trouble. She has many admirers, including John Hagen (season 2). He threatens her with his weapon in the season 3 finale and shoots herself a short time later on the shooting range right after she left the room. Calleigh then decides not to work in ballistics for the time being. However, she has a problem with the people who are now taking over her posts because, in her opinion, they are not working properly enough. This is also the reason why she is returning to ballistics in season four. At the beginning of the 5th season she is the substitute for Horatio, while he flies to Rio. In season 6, Calleigh is taken hostage after a former colleague set up a web site for ridiculing her and using it to track down criminals who she was supposed to help cover up a murder. She and Eric develop feelings for each other, after which they secretly start a relationship. At the end of season 10, she adopted two children, Patty and Austin North.

Eric "Delko" Delektorsky

Portrayed by Adam Rodriguez

He's the fingerprint and drug specialist. He's also the best diver on the team as he worked with the rescue divers before joining the CSI. He is of Cuban and Russian descent and speaks his mother tongues fluently. His best buddy was Tim Speedle, which is why he didn't get along so well with his successor, Ryan Wolfe. Since Eric has private problems, he does not respond to an order of operations and the ongoing argument between him and Ryan escalates, but the two can then reconcile. In episode 4.10 Bounty Hunters , Eric is suspended from duty because he is suspected of buying marijuana. Eric can't deny these allegations and his urine test is positive too. However, Eric's sister Marisol Horatio explains that she took the drugs because of great pain caused by leukemia, and that Eric did not actively smoke, but only sat next to her. Due to a lack of evidence, the prosecutor had to drop her charges. At the beginning of the 5th season he flies to Rio with Horatio to bring down Antonio Riaz, his sister's murderer. He can catch Riaz and there is a knife fight, Horatio saves him and stabs Riaz. In the 14th episode of season 5 One of Us , Eric is seriously injured in an exchange of fire. But he survived, as can be seen in an episode later. Since then, however, he has sometimes had difficulty concentrating, in one episode he hallucinates the appearance of Tim Speedle. He and Calleigh have a secret relationship. In episode 25 of season 7, Eric is shot by Calleigh during an exchange of gunfire between the Russians while he was helping his father escape the Russians. After his accident in the final episode of the 7th season, he only appears in 10 episodes of the 8th season as the main actor. In season 9, Eric returned to the team.

Ryan Wolfe

Portrayed by Jonathan Togo

He joins the team for Speedle who was killed on duty. He caught the attention of Horatio when he was still helping to solve a crime as a patrolman. He knows he can never replace Speedle, but tries to do his best as a member of the CSI team. He falls out of favor with Delko who thinks Wolfe is trying to be better than Speedle. He cannot understand Eric's allegations as they are often just misunderstandings. Ryan says of himself that he only does his job, but thoroughly. In episode 4.08 Wish Killer , Ryan is wounded by a nail gun bullet next to his right eye during the investigation . Eric, who was scheduled for this investigation but has not responded, finds him and takes him to the hospital. Ryan suffers no consequential harm and is reconciled with Eric when he is released. In one episode of the fourth season it can be heard that Ryan Wolfe is suspected of being a mole, but it turns out to be wrong. Later he has to work with the actual mole, Natalia Boa Vista, which he completely dislikes. In the fifth season, he is suspended from duty due to his gambling addiction. He then works as a TV presenter. When he realizes that the program is inciting viewers against innocent people, he quits and works on a shooting range until he is reinstated (episode 6.06). During Season 7, Ryan is kidnapped by the Russians and forced to work against the team: he has to clear evidence of a murder commissioned by the Russians. In the course of the 8th season you learn that Ryan Wolfe works part-time for a security company as security at parties and events. In the season finale of the 10th season, Ryan Wolfe is suspected of a murder, but this is refuted after a short time.

Francis "Frank" Tripp

Portrayed by Rex Linn

He is a support detective for the Miami-Dade Police Department. He doesn't understand much about forensic science, but he has great respect for the work of the CSI and the improved crime investigation that goes with it. After Yelina Salas emigrated to Brazil with her husband, he started appearing more and more frequently from season 4, and with the beginning of the fifth season he was included in the main cast. In episode 3.10, Children of Anger , he tells a suspect that he is divorced. He also has three children.

Natalia Boa Vista

Portrayed by Eva LaRue

She joins the lab as a new lab technician at the beginning of the fourth season and begins an affair with Eric Delko. She is revealed as a mole at the end of season four and at the beginning of season 5 she is employed as a crime scene investigator in the field, where she has to work with Ryan Wolfe, among others. In the fifth season, her ex-husband suddenly appears, which is a serious burden for Natalia because he physically abused and injured her during the marriage. However, when he is murdered, both she and Valera are suspected of being the killer. In the 9th season finale, Natalia is locked in the trunk of a car and driven into a lake. Horatio can save her even though he was shot.

Dan Cooper

portrayed by Brendan Fehr

Is a laboratory technician at the CSI and a computer expert. Because he tampered with Tim Speedle's private things, he was thrown out of the laboratory (season 6). Shortly afterwards he takes revenge and manipulates evidence and, through a website "Solve a crime with Calleigh", brings his former colleague Calleigh into serious trouble; remorsefully returns the stolen evidence to the lab after Eric assaulted him.

Walter Simmons

Portrayed by Omar Benson Miller

He's a night shift CSI who comes on Caine's team. Walter is an expert on art theft. He quickly makes friends with Jesse and Ryan. He has a high mathematical talent and is able to carry out very complex arithmetic tasks in a short time. Over time, he will also become more confident in handling weapons and the demands that field operations place on him. Horatio is very fond of him.

Megan Donner

Portrayed by Kim Delaney

She was originally the head of the CSI in Miami. After the death of her husband, however, she took a few months off on her own initiative and lost her post to Horatio. A few months after returning to the team, she resigned because her work reminded her too much of her dead husband.

Yelina Salas

Portrayed by Sofia Milos

She is Horatio's sister-in-law. This helped her with the education of her son Raymond Caine jr. She was in a relationship with Rick Stetler, a police officer from the regulatory agency, who is jealous of Horatio, because he was promoted to lieutenant instead of himself. At the end of season 3, she learns that her husband Raymond Caine is still alive and emigrates with him and their son to Brazil to protect both. Her husband is killed in Brazil and her son is abused by Horatio's archenemy Antonio Riaz (murderer of Marisol and Ray) for his drug deals. Horatio and Eric fly to Brazil together to kill Riaz, and they can kill Ray Jr. finally get rid of the clutches of drug dealers. For Raymond Caine sr. if any help comes too late, however, he dies in Horatio's arms. After this event, the close bond between Horatio and Yelina becomes apparent again. You and ray jr. then move back to Miami. Yelina Salas has a guest role in the first episode of season 5 and in the episode Too Hot . She also has other appearances in the 6th and 7th season.

Timothy "Tim" "Speed" Speedle

Portrayed by Rory Cochrane

He was a good friend of Eric. He was a bookworm and very popular with his colleagues. Speed ​​dies in an exchange of fire at the beginning of season 3. It turns out that he hadn't looked after his weapon properly and it then failed, even though he had experienced the same thing in a similar incident and should have learned from it, according to the prosecutor.

Tim Speedle is returning for an episode on CSI: Miami in Season 6, Episode 4. In this episode he interacts with Eric Delko, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and as a result sees the "ghost" of Speedle, who helps him to solve the current case.

Marisol "Delko" Delektorsky Caine

Portrayed by Alana de la Garza

She is the sister of Eric Delko. She suffers from extreme pain because of her leukemia , which she only suppresses by smoking marijuana . She marries Horatio Caine during the fourth season and is killed in an assassination attempt shortly afterwards. Later she appears more often in flashbacks and scraps of memory Horatios. For the opening episode of the 10th season, some previously unavailable scenes with de la Garza were filmed, as Horatio's feverish fever has a kind of near-death experience and Marisol sees again.

Dr. Alexx Woods

Portrayed by Khandi Alexander

She worked in the autopsy of the CSI department. She started out as a PhD in New York, but made her way to Miami as a coroner in a variety of circumstances . Alexx has an unusual habit: she talks to the dead lying on her table. In addition, she always appears in light clothing at the blood-smeared crime scene. She is married and has two kids. In the episode Your Last Corpse (6.19), her son is the main suspect in a murder case, which makes Alexx doubt her job and her friendship with the other CSI team members. Finally, Alexx decides against the team and leaves it. She then works part-time in the emergency room of a hospital.

Dr. Tara Price

Portrayed by Megalyn Echikunwoke

She is the medical examiner after Alexx Woods; however, at the end of Season 7, she is dismissed for evading evidence.

Dr. Tom Loman

Portrayed by Christian Clemenson

He's been the team's medical examiner since Season 8. In the course of the 8th season you learn that in addition to his work at the CSI, he also teaches at the university. You also learn in the course of the 8th and 9th season that he has a great deal of knowledge about animals and can specifically look for evidence on them.

Jesse Cardoza

Portrayed by Eddie Cibrian

Jesse was part of Horatio's team in 1997. On the day the division was renamed CSI, Jesse went to Hollywood. There he worked at the LAPD . In 2009 he returned to Miami for a season on Horatio's team. He died as a result of an attack on the CSI laboratory in episode 1 of season 9.

CSI: NY

Mac Llewellyn Taylor

Portrayed by Gary Sinise

The head of the New York City CSI team is only called Mac by his colleagues. Originally from Chicago. His middle name Llewellyn comes from Welsh and has to do with his mother's family (see 8.18 ). As a child, he witnessed a murder that caught up with him 30 years later ( episodes 4.01; 4.03; 4.09; 4.10 ). Back then, Mac's best friend's big brother was a drug messenger, and Mac and his friend helped out without knowing what they were doing. However, one of those dangerous deals had complications that resulted in the older brother being beaten to death. At that time Mac would have had the chance to shoot the perpetrator and save the boy, but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger for fear. The youngest brother had crept after the older boys and had to watch everything. He has since regarded Mac's inaction as a coward and blames him for his brother's death. So he terrorizes him for a while at 3:33 a.m. with anonymous phone calls, leads him back to Chicago and eventually almost kills him.

Mac's father dies of small cell lung cancer (see episode 3.09 Victims of Confusion ) shortly after Mac's honorable discharge from the Marine Corps . Some time later he moves to New York with his wife Claire ( Jaime Ray Newman ), where Claire's family lives. Claire works as a journalist in the WTC and is killed in the 9/11 attacks . However, their remains are never identified, which is why there is no grave (see episode 3.15 Bloody Labyrinth ). Mac can't get over Claire's loss and has suffered from severe chronic insomnia ever since that day.

He has a deep friendship with Stella Bonasera. Mac is highly valued by his team and it is important to him that he can trust each and every one of them unconditionally. He once describes his intentions as follows: "There are three things that I would protect at any cost: the honor of our country, the safety of New York and the integrity of this laboratory" ( episode 2.02 Malpractice ). With this he justified the dismissal of Det. Aiden Burn, who was about to forge evidence in a rape case.

Mac is a passionate musician and plays the bass in a jazz band once a week (see episode 2x14 Mitten ins Herz ). Actor Gary Sinise himself actually plays bass in a band called the Lieutenant Dan Band .

In season three , Mac begins a relationship with coroner Dr. Peyton Driscoll ( Claire Forlani ). In previous episodes, appointments with different women have been shown a few times, but so far it has always stayed with this one date. Mac says of himself that he wasn't able to take a step in that direction again until he met Peyton. So after Claire's death, she's the first woman he really gets involved with. But although they really seem to love each other, after a vacation together in their hometown London, Peyton surprisingly decides not to return to New York, and writes Mac a suicide note ( 4.04 Die Another Day ). Tragic circumstances (a mysterious murder in 6.22 The Window to the Courtyard ) bring the two lovers together again a few years later.

In episode 3.08 ( Alien ), Mac meets Reed Garrett ( Kyle Gallner ). This is Claire's (now 22-year-old) son. Claire had become pregnant by her boyfriend at the time during her high school days and put the child up for adoption to enable him to have a better life. She'd told Mac about him and always looked forward to seeing Reed. After Claire's death, Mac had discarded this idea, but when he is facing Reed, he immediately grows on him. Mac had always believed he could take his time starting a family - an attitude he deeply regrets with Claire's death. That's why he now clings to the idea of ​​having her flesh and blood with Reed in his vicinity. He feels responsible for him and develops fatherly feelings. A deep friendship develops between the two.

In episode 5.23 ("Schuld und Atonement") he becomes the proud godfather of little Lucy (daughter of Danny and Lindsay Messer).

In May 2011, Mac quit his service at the CSI to work with other scientists on a new method for DNA extraction in the private company Piper Laboratories . This is to help identify any more 9/11 victims - Mac doesn't expect to run into Claire while doing his work. He also actively supports the construction of the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance (by the way, like actor Gary Sinise ) to commemorate the first responders of 9/11. So after 10 long years he finally manages to come to terms with the morning of September 11th and with it Claire's death. Jo can then persuade him to return to the CSI.

Claire comes into play again at the end of season eight , when Mac is almost shot in a pharmacy and then has a kind of near-death experience in a coma , in which he meets Claire and talks to his friends from the CSI team one after the other. The name of episode 8.18 is therefore called Near Death in the original .

Stella Bonasera

Portrayed by Melina Kanakaredes

She lives for her job. Some colleagues refer to her as the Statue of Liberty because of her strong personality, intensive investigations and her high IQ . She is of half-Greek, half-Italian descent and grew up in children's homes. Stella speaks fluent Greek and knows a lot about the local culture and history. She seems to have less contact with Italian, but speaks and understands the language well (e.g. in 2.20 ). She has a close friendship with Mac. She knows about his sleep disorders and is very worried about his health. She is also good friends with the other teammates and helps them when she can. In season two , she has a boyfriend named Frankie. He seems very attentive, sends her flowers etc., but after he gives her a sculpture called "Aresanob" ( 2.20 ), Stella discovers a website on which the two can be seen having sex and breaks up. That doesn't suit Frankie at all and he gets into her apartment with a fake key. He ties her up after she went to get the police. Stella manages to free herself and she shoots Frankie in self-defense ( 2.21 ). Everyone is worried about their condition, which shows their close ties to the other CSIs. The next man interested in her ( season four ) has no good in mind either. It is a friend of Mac from childhood who tries to get at him through Stella and kill him. Stella seems to instinctively sense something like this. Even two years after the Frankie thing, she doesn't have many dates. But at the time ( 4.16 ) a fire breaks out in her new apartment. It turns out that it was laid by two kidnapped children "because the police are coming". As a result, Stella feels very guilty because she hadn't noticed that the kidnapped boy had tried to ask her for help two years earlier - shortly after she moved in. In episode 6.01 she has a one-night stand with Adam Ross, but they both decide to leave it at that. She will be transferred to New Orleans between the sixth and seventh seasons to head the CSI there, which the viewer learns about through a letter to Lindsay. She is being replaced by Josephine Danville (see below), who - like Stella before her - has played the role of Mac's good friend from the start.

Daniel "Danny" knife

Portrayed by Carmine Giovinazzo

Danny is the most complicated character on the team. Raised in Staten Island in an Italian Mafia family, he has his own views of ethics, somewhere between law enforcement and law breakers. Mac brought him into the team personally, but his unreliable manner means that Danny falls out of favor with him. He has a deep friendship with Flack. At first he is the only one on the team that Danny trusts unconditionally. Danny was once a budding baseball star, but he was injured in a fight in a bar and switched "straight from training camp to police school" of the NYPD (see episode 1.22 "Changing sides"). At the beginning of the third season it is announced that he only annoys his colleague Lindsay now and then because he is in love with her. At the end of the third season, Danny and Lindsay finally get closer and can finally be seen together in bed / at the pool table. The two have been a couple since then, but the death of the neighbor boy Ruben leads to a separation. Because Danny blames himself for it and also starts an affair with the boy's mother. He neglects Lindsay. Only when she tells him that she has fallen in love with him, but that she has to get rid of this feeling, does Danny think about it. He ends the affair and calls Lindsay. At the beginning of the fifth season (5.09 "Autofriedhof") it is announced that Lindsay is pregnant. When Danny proposes to her a short time later (5.10 "Verstrahlt"), however, she initially refuses on the grounds that he only wants to marry her because of the child. In ep. 5.17 (“The Attack”), Danny finally manages to convince her otherwise after a long conversation with Mac, and the two marry. Stella and Mac are the groomsmen. Also in this season their child Lucy is born and Mac becomes godfather. In episode 6.01 (“Splintered”) he is injured in a shootout and is initially in a wheelchair. But he sets himself the goal of dancing with his daughter at their wedding and begins to train with iron discipline. A few weeks later (6.04 “The DNA Phantom”) he can move without a wheelchair again. A year and a half later, he quit his job as a criminologist to pursue a career with the NYPD. In the last episode of the seventh season ("Missing") he is promoted to sergeant, but six months later (in episode 8.04) he ends up back at the CSI after his charges tried to deliver him to the knife by having an affair with him a novice police officer. Lindsay knows that he is not cheating on her and stands by him. In the ninth season it is announced that Lindsay is expecting a child for the second time; this time a boy.

Dr. Sheldon Hawkes

Portrayed by Hill Harper

The coroner was a child prodigy who graduated from college at 18 and became a surgeon at 24. After losing two patients, he switched to forensic medicine on the grounds that “If God has the last word on death, I can still do something if someone leaves before his time. At least that's what I imagine. ”(Part 3.09“ Victims of mistake ”). From the second season, however, he works in the field. In season 6 he speculates with money and loses all of his fortune. He finds strength in his voluntary work with the Central Park Medical Emergency Service. Due to his lost fortune, he also loses his apartment and temporarily moves in with Mac Taylor until he finally finds a new, small apartment. His sister, with whom he did not have a good relationship for years, was a drug addict and was killed while intoxicated by her boyfriend at the time in 1999.

Donald "Don" Flack

Portrayed by Eddie Cahill

He's the link between the NYPD and the new CSI department. He's the kind of cop who has no mercy on the bad guys. With his kind he is always at the limit. One of his special characteristics is the sarcasm with which he confronts his colleagues and, above all, each of his suspects. He is friends with Danny Messer and always has an ear for his problems. He has a sister who also lives in New York, who suffers from alcohol and drug problems. He learned the Gaelic language from his grandparents (episode 5/19). In the last episode of the second season he is seriously injured in a bomb explosion, but sustains no permanent damage. Flack has a girlfriend in between, but that soon seems to be forgotten. Finally he flirts with his colleague Jess and gets together with her. But when his "Jess" is hit in an exchange of fire and then dies, he falls into a deep crisis. He is addicted to alcohol and only appears irregularly for duty. During the 6th season he tries to get his life back in order. In season 9, he approaches his new partner, Detective Jamie Lovato. Both have feelings for each other.

Lindsay Monroe knife

Portrayed by Anna Belknap

She is a young forensic scientist who previously worked at CSI in Montana and joined the team for Detective Aiden Burn ( Vanessa Ferlito ). Since she is still new, Mac initially seems to see her as his protégé, which she rather dislikes. But due to her strict work ethic and her serious way of working, she fits in very well with the team. She soon found real friends among her colleagues. She is particularly fascinated by her boss Mac. She quickly becomes friends with Danny too, falls in love with him and marries him in season 5. But it envelops her a dark secret that reveals her true motivation for moving to New York. In the third season this secret is revealed. Lindsay gets a call from Bozeman, Montana. She is supposed to testify there as a witness in a murder case. As a teenager, she watched three of her friends and a restaurant waitress get shot. Lindsay was the only survivor and therefore the only witness. After she had to break off her testimony in court the first time because it was too much for her, she was able to identify the killer beyond doubt the next day through Danny's presence (he had flown spontaneously to Montana) and thus put him behind bars. Lindsay is very happy that he followed her and they want to kiss, but that's when the photographers arrive and the kiss doesn't happen for the time being. In the last episode of the third season, the two spend an evening together and also sleep together. The next day, Danny takes over her shift, during which he gets into great trouble and is injured (episode 3.24 "Snow Day - State of Emergency"). Lindsay blames herself for this, but Danny calms her down. In the fourth season it is very quiet about the two, but from an interview you learn that they are still happy together. This can also be seen in their constant good mood. But Danny forgets her birthday and a few days later Lindsay wants to meet him for lunch, but he moves her. A while later, Danny asks why she's making such a drama out of it. This makes Lindsay angry and tells him not to reduce her to the role of a clinging friend, and that he has changed a lot since Ruben's death. She lets him understand that she knows how he feels, but he doesn't want to talk to her. Then she says to him: "I'm not mad at you, more at myself because I've fallen in love with you and now I can see how I get rid of this feeling ..." (slight deviations possible) and lets him stand . Mac also approaches her about their relationship when an inspector notices that she has been working poorly and has let himself be distracted by Danny when he tried to talk to her about it. He tells her that no matter what goes (or doesn't) between them, their work shouldn't suffer, and she tells him that it was really stupid to do something with a colleague. She really seems to be of that opinion. At the end of the fourth season, Danny and Lindsay are on the phone. Danny apologizes to her and tells her that he misses her very much. She tells him that it is hard to love him because her job suffers from the way he treats her and it breaks her heart. But in the fifth season they come together again. It is also revealed that she is pregnant by Danny. At that time, the actress Anna Belknap was pregnant and this pregnancy was built into the series. Still, she doesn't want to talk about it with Danny because, as she says, she knows him and doesn't expect anything from him. After avoiding him for a while, she tells him anyway and even shows him an ultrasound scan. Shortly thereafter, Danny proposes to her, but she refuses. She tells him that this is not the right time and that he is only doing it because he knows that she is pregnant. But when he proposes to her again some time later (right in front of the registry office), she agrees and they walk in, where Mac and Stella are already waiting with flowers and wedding rings. At the end of the fifth season, their daughter Lucy is finally born. Adam finds out first because her amniotic sac bursts while working. They all agree that Mac should be the godfather. When the small family is on vacation at the end of the sixth season, Shane Casey follows them and threatens Lucy, whom he is holding in his arms. Lindsay is agitated and trembling because she has a gun in her hand, but is afraid to meet Lucy, but manages to shoot him. In the seventh season she receives an award for this, but she is saddened and does not want to keep the award. But then she gets a letter from Stella and talks to Danny, who gives her back the medal and tells her that it doesn't matter who she shot, but who she saved.

In season 9, she announces that she is pregnant again.

Dr. Sid Hammerback

Portrayed by Robert Joy

After Sheldon Hawkes moved from forensic medicine to field service, Dr. Sid Hammerback forensic medicine. He loves his job more than anything and often digresses when it comes to his stories. He would like to do an autopsy himself. He has two daughters. After applying for a patent for an orthopedic pillow he developed, he sells it to a Japanese company for a whopping 27 million dollars, but initially doesn't know what to do with this fortune. That ends in the fact that at the end of episode 8.13 there is a grand piano in the forensic medicine, but Sid cannot play on it at all. In season 9, he turns out to be the big donor of money for some New Yorkers. When Jo Danville found out, he justified his decision to give all his money to others because he had cancer and didn't know how long he would live. However, he asks Jo to keep this a secret.

Adam Ross

Portrayed by AJ Buckley

He is one of the lab technicians at CSI NY. He often seems insecure and a bit disoriented, but does a good job. He's a genius when it comes to technology. In episode 6.01 he has a brief affair with Stella Bonasera. It seems he is disappointed with the short duration of the affair.

You learn that Adam was often beaten up by his father as a child, which is why he behaves insecure towards authority figures like Stella and Mac and often digresses from the actual topic. He also has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Josephine "Jo" Danville

Portrayed by Sela Ward

A veteran profiler from Washington, DC who left the FBI because someone on her team was destroying evidence and being blamed, she takes over from Stella Bonasera. She has a son who is going to college and an adopted daughter who is looking for her birth mother in an episode and it is learned that she is in prison. Josephine stands out because of her strong empathy for the victims. She can be seen for the first time in the first episode of the seventh season. She blends in very well and soon becomes as worried about Mac as Stella was before.

Aiden Burn

Portrayed by Vanessa Ferlito

She was from Brooklyn and knew how to adapt. She was fired from Mac in season two for breaking the seal of a document and thereby questioning the team's credibility. She agreed to be released because she couldn't give any assurance that she would be able to resist the temptation next time. Mac had promised her, however, that the case file would remain on his desk until it was solved. She was investigating a rape case that had occurred for the second time and toyed with the idea of ​​falsifying the evidence so as not to let the perpetrator get away again. After her resignation, she still met with her former teammates, most notably Danny, who later appeared deeply affected by her death. She met others less often, but once she ran into Stella, she told her that she was working as a private investigator and on one other side. Stella also later reproaches herself. As a result of close combat , her corpse is found, burned beyond recognition. It turns out that her killer was the rapist she suspected. Mac and his team can finally arrest him. Danny tells - when everyone toasted her memory - that she had flashed him several times because she thought he was cute, but she was in a different league.

Jessica Angell

Portrayed by Emmanuelle Vaugier

Detective Jessica Angell gets teased at times by Danny and Flack, which Don's because he likes them. She is a colleague of the two who appears more frequently over time. She also seems to be getting along well with the rest of the team. While observing Don, she discovers that he is flirting with her. Soon the two will become a couple. She's got to keep an eye on a suspect's son in a restaurant. Meanwhile, she is on the phone with Flack and discusses the evening planning with him. Shots are fired, a truck races into the restaurant, Flack drives to the scene of the accident and finds Angell, who is bleeding heavily. He'll take her to the hospital right away. But she dies there. It takes a long time for him to get over it.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quotemeter.de : "CSI": A main character leaves
2. ↑ Quotenmeter.de : changes in the "CSI" -Cast
3. ↑ Jorja Fox makes it official: She's leaving 'CSI' ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ buddytv.com - CSI: Miami Aftergasm: Good Cop. Bad Cop. What Cop? ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
5. ↑ tvguidemagazine.com - Exclusive: Adam Rodriguez to Leave CSI: Miami ( Memento of the original from August 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  

Web links

• Official site at CBS (English)
• Official site at CBS (English)
• Official page from CBS to CSI: New York (English)