Who is Eleanor Bishop on NCIS? Everything to know about the character

Viewers of NCIS first met Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop during a time when a lot of big changes were happening on the show. When she was introduced in Season 11, she stepped into a high-pressure situation to fill the gap left by characters that fans loved. She brought a new, analytical view to the Major Case Response Team because she used to work as an analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA). She was very helpful to Leroy Jethro Gibbs because she was smart and had a special talent for quickly organizing information.

Emily Wickersham plays the complex character of Eleanor Bishop on NCIS. She moved to Oklahoma and then became a full-time Special Agent after starting her career as a liaison officer. She has grown as a person and done well in her career, and her dramatic departure saw her give up her badge to live undercover.

During her time on the job, Bishop changed from an odd analyst who sat on the floor to an experienced field operative. She had a backstory as a "country girl" with three older brothers who looked out for her. This made her more complex, easy to relate to, and hard to deal with. As time went on, she became central to the team, dealing with tough cases and tricky personal relationships.

Eleanor Bishop on NCIS and Everything to Know About His Character

Born on September 30, 1985, in Hinton, Oklahoma, Eleanor Raye "Ellie" Bishop was the youngest of four children. Having to compete with George, John, and Robert while being raised by her mother, Barbara Bishop, gave her the ability to deal with difficult situations. Because of this upbringing, she became a woman who could hold her own in federal law enforcement, which is mostly made up of men.
Before Bishop worked for NCIS, she was a great analyst at the NSA. During this time, she met and married Jake Malloy. At the NSA, she was known for her intelligence, but she also had a dangerous obsession with the terrorist Benham Parsa. Her bosses were very worried about her health and well-being, so they took her off the case. But it was this level of work that got Leroy Jethro Gibbs's attention.

Joining the Major Case Response Team

Bishop first appeared in the Season 11 episode "Gut Check." Her boss in the NSA, Chad Flynderling, introduced her, and she quickly impressed Gibbs and Tony DiNozzo by showing them how good she was at predicting criminal behavior. At first, she was just a liaison, but she eventually earned her place as a Probationary Agent. Bishop often spread files on the floor to see how they were connected, which was different from how other agents worked.
Her move to NCIS put a lot of stress on her marriage. She and Jake used to work for the same agency, but now that they didn't, they were not allowed to talk about their work. Not talking to each other caused big problems in their relationship. In Season 12, Bishop and DiNozzo were pulled away by a case during a team dinner to try to close this gap, which did not work. In the end, she and Jake got a divorce. Later, she fell in love with Qasim Naasir, a civilian translator. But when he was killed, it was tragic and left Bishop heartbroken and wanting to avenge his death.

After Gibbs and Timothy McGee were caught in Paraguay, Bishop showed she was a good leader. While they were gone, she promoted herself to Senior Field Agent and was in charge of the team as a special agent. Her rise from "newbie" to leader showed that she is good at planning and is emotionally mature.

Bishop's story took a dark turn in May 2021. She quit NCIS during a big scandal, looking like she had leaked private NSA papers many years before. But it came out that this was all planned to "burn" her reputation so she could work with Odette Malone on a high-stakes undercover operation.
A lot has changed in Season 23. Director Leon Vance has given Special Agent Jessica Knight, who took over Bishop's job, a job for NCIS: ELITE. The target of her is a wanted criminal, and to Knight's surprise, it's Eleanor Bishop. The last time she was seen, she was watching from her car as Knight left a funeral, setting the stage for a tense confrontation.

NCIS episodes are available to stream on CBS.