Born March 27, 1969 in New Orleans, LA, Perrette spent much of her childhood shuttled between several locations through the American South, due to her father’s job with the phone company. A fascination with education and science earned her a degree with honors in sociology, criminology, and psychology, which she expanded upon with a master’s degree. Following graduation, she relocated to New York City, where she bartended in order to pursue a performing career – a gig which landed her in numerous music videos and short films.
Her first “big break” arrived in 1996 when she joined the cast of Steven Bochco’s “Murder One” (ABC, 1995-97), after the series was completely overhauled by its producers and network. Numerous episodic turns followed, including repeat performances on “Frasier” (NBC, 1993-2004), “Jesse” (NBC, 1998-2001) and “The Drew Carey Show” (ABC, 1995-2004) – on the latter of which she portrayed one of Carey’s girlfriends. She also starred as a cast member on the short-lived Jennifer Love Hewitt series, “The Time of Your Life” (Fox, 1999-2000).
Perrette’s feature film appearances through the years were sporadic, due in equal parts to opportunity and availability. After a starring turn in the independent film “The Price of Kissing” (1997), in which she was billed under her sometime nom de guerre, Pauley P, she landed supporting roles in Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” (2000) and Gore Verbinski’s “The Ring” (2002). Like any struggling actress, she found more substantial work in independent features like “A Moment of Grace” (2004) – for which she was top-billed.
After landing multiple episode arcs on hit shows like “Dawson’s Creek” (The WB, 1998-2003) in 2001 and “24” (Fox, 2001- ) in 2002, she scored by far the most important role she had to date – that of the quirky, pig-tailed scientist Abby Sciuto – first, on two episodes of the inexplicably long-running military drama, “JAG” (NBC/CBS/USA, 1995-2005), secondly, on the “JAG” spin-off, “Navy: NCIS,” starting in 2003. The character’s blend of quirky humor, offbeat personality, and intelligence seemed to be the perfect role for the unique Perrette. Fans of the series continued to enjoy the plot wrinkles the producers provided for her, most notably her warm relationship with medical examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum) and the casual romance she had with over-eager agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), who was so struck by her charms that he tattooed his own backside in an attempt to win her over. Sadly, that relationship fizzled by the end of the second season, and a hint of jealousy between Abby and new agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) arose in the third season after the latter caught McGhee’s eye.
An avid supporter of numerous charitable causes (including animal rescue, the American Red Cross, and gay rights), Perrette also spent her time away from “NCIS” blogging for the show’s CBS site page as well as for her own web site. She was also involved in producing a documentary about civil rights attorney Mark Lane (author of Rush to Judgment, about the Warren Commission’s findings on the Kennedy assassination). Perrette’s personal life was marked with some drama in 2006 when her former husband, a little-known singer-songwriter named Coyote Shivers, was cited for harassing her at numerous occasions following their 2006 divorce.