‘NCIS’ Recruits ‘Young and the Restless’ Star Camryn Grimes for Upcoming Episode

This week’s episode of NCIS will feature a familiar face for fans who also watch The Young and The Restless. Caryn Grimes, who plays Mariah Copeland on the long-running daytime soap opera, is the guest star for the Oct. 22 episode “Wide Awake.” The episode finds Gibbs and his team investigating what could be “literally the perfect murder.”

In “Wide Awake,” Grimes stars as Marine Corporal Laney Alimonte, who is suspected of killing her neighbor. The team later discovers she was being treated for insomnia by a hypnotherapist, and her treatment might have played a role in the killing.

Elsewhere in the hour, Gibbs (Mark Harmon) meets his new neighbors, but unlike Laney, he is not suspected of killing them. Instead, he becomes friends with them after their 9-year-old’s basketball crashes through his window.

Laura San Giacomo also returns to NCIS in “Wide Awake” as Dr. Grace Confalone. It is her first appearance of the season and first appearance on the show since last season’s “Lost Time” episode.

NCIS also stars Sean Murray as McGee, Emily Wichersham as Ellie, Wilmer Valderrama as Nick, Maria Bello as Jack, Brian Dietsen as medical examiner Jimmy Palmer, Diona Reasonover as forensic scientist Kasie Hines, Rocy Carroll as NCIS Director Leon Vance and David McCallum as Dr. “Ducky” Mallard.

Grimes, 29, has been on CBS’ The Young and the Restless for most of her life. She first appeared on the show in 1997 as Cassie Newman, a role she played regularly until 2007. Although the character was killed off, Grimes returned to the series as a new character, Mariah Copeland, in 2014 and has been on the show ever since. She won the Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series at the Daytime Emmys in 2000 and the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Daytime Emmy in 2018.

“I was gone for a long time,” Grimes said of the time she was away from Y&R in an interview with Global TV. “In the span of 28 years of life, it feels like I never left. But I’m not the same person I was before or even when I wasn’t on the show. I was in school and I moved to New York. I was growing up, learning things. I’m now so far from that person in her early 20s — in a good way.”

She later called her Emmy win evidence of “moving in the right direction.”

Laney will be the third different character Grimes has played in the NCIS franchise. Back in 1997, she played Lisa Frankel in the JAG episode “The Court-Martial of Sandra Gilbert.” In 2010, she played Diane Farley in the NCIS: Los Angeles episode “Special Delivery.”

Grimes has also appeared in episodes of Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer and The Mentalist, all of which aired on CBS. Her resume also includes episodes of Medium, ER, Make It Or Break It and Animal Kingdom.

NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Photo credit: Michael Yarish/CBS