Chris O’Donnell

Crime drama fans will recognise Chris O’Donnell from playing Special Agent Grisha ‘G’ Callen in over 200 episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, a CBS show in the NCIS franchise that has now run for 12 seasons and won several awards, including three Teen Choice awards for Choice Action Show. It has also been nominated for a Golden Globe and O’Donnell himself has been nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Favourite TV Crime Drama Actor. The character of Callen has taken on something of a life of its own with O’Donnell playing him in a crossover episode with Hawaii Five-O and an episode of animated comedy American Dad!

Long before NCIS came along, however, O’Donnell was already long-established as an acting force. A former child actor whose first acting break was serving Michael Jordan in a 1980s McDonalds advert, he was nominated for the 1992 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor thanks to his role in The Scent of a Woman, a major drama movie in which he acted alongside Al Pacino. He also appeared in the likes of Batman Forever, Blue Sky, Circle of Friends, Mad Love, and Max Payne.

O’Donnell began moving into television acting in the early 2000s, first appearing in Primetime Emmy-winning legal drama The Practice. He also had recurring roles in hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy and award-winning Cold War-era drama The Company. In 2009, he was cast as G. Callen in NCIS, which led to the Los Angeles spin-off of which he has been a central part ever since.