Shalita Grant Leaving ‘NCIS: New Orleans’

Sonja Percy is walking away from NCIS: New Orleans.

Actress Shalita Grant, who plays Percy on the CBS procedural drama, will be leaving the series after an amicable and mutual agreement between the producers, according to Variety.

Grant recurred as Percy, a former ATF agent recruited to the NCIS unit, in the show’s first season. She was promoted to series regular for the second, third and fourth seasons. Grant’s final episode will be the 17th episode of season four, scheduled to air April 3.

“It’s just time for a change,” Grant’s manager Didi Rea told Variety. “This is about moving on to the next great thing.”

A veteran of many Broadway productions and a Juilliard graduate, Grant has also appeared on the PBS Civil War drama Mercy Street, Bones, and The Good Wife. Her character also appeared on NCIS.

Sources say the departure of the actress is completely unrelated to a recent Variety story about the drama’s showrunner, Brad Kern, who is alleged to have made racially insensitive remarks and engaged in sexual harassment.

In December, CBS said that it had taken action to “address behavior and management style” after two HR investigations in 2016. Kern remains the showrunner of NCIS: New Orleans.

Fans took to Twitter to react to the Grant’s departure.

NCIS: New Orleans also stars Scott Bakula, Lucas Black, Rob Kerkovich, CCH Pounder, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell and Vanessa Ferlito.

The team focuses on crimes that involve personnel in the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and their territory ranges from the Mississippi River to the Texas Panhandle. The show combines elements of the military drama and the crime procedural that have made fellow franchise series NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles successful on CBS.

NCIS: New Orleans aired its first episode on Sept. 23, 2014 and has aired 84 episodes throughout its four-season run. Grant is not the first series regular to leave the CBS crime procedural. Zoe McLellan, who played the role of Meredith Brody, left the show after season 2.

The show airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.