The Real Reason Lauren Holly Left NCIS

While some actors face the unfortunate fate of a quickly dimming career after leaving a hit series, that couldn't be further from the truth for Lauren Holly. She's continued to flourish in both the television and film realms post-NCIS, which should come as no surprise considering how many screen credits she'd racked up prior to joining the show.

Since exiting NCIS, Holly has appeared on series like Leverage, Covert Affairs, Rookie Blue, Lucifer, and Good Witch. She's also lent her voice to the computer-animated television show The Adventures of Chuck and Friends, playing Haulie, an anthropomorphic forklift who's the mother of the titular Chuck. Holly's biggest television gig after NCIS came in 2013, when she began starring in a central role on the Canadian police procedural series Motive. The actress played lead medical examiner Dr. Betty Rogers on the show, which ran for four seasons before wrapping in August 2016. Most recently, Holly has held a recurring role as Lynn Harper on the political drama-thriller Designated Survivor. 

On the film side of things, fans likely best remember seeing Holly in as Linda in 2015's The Blackcoat's Daughter (a hidden horror gem you can watch on Netflix). Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, the film centers around two students, the awkward Kat (Kiernan Shipka) and Linda's daughter Rose (Lucy Boynton), who are left behind at their boarding school during winter break. It's rumored that the school's nuns worship Satan — talk that turns out to be a lot less terrifying than the truth of the situation.

NCIS was inarguably a bright spot in Holly's professional career — even if she did get bored of the gig after a while — but it's clear that her future is even brighter.