NCIS: Los Angeles/Characters

G. Callen (Chris O'Donnell)

 * Action Genre Hero Guy
 * Combat Pragmatist: As a contrast to his partner's more typical fighting style.
 * Dead Little Sister: Both his foster sister and his biological sister are dead.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Feuding Families: The almost 70 year old feud between Callen's family and the Comescu family is the reason why he is an orphan.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Sam. When they're not the below.
 * Ho Yay: With Sam. When they're not the above.
 * Mysterious Past: Hell, he doesn't even know his own first name.
 * No Name Given
 * Omniglot: G can speak English, Arabic, French, German (Which some people says has an Austrian accent), Italian (With a Northern accent), Polish, Russian and Spanish. He says that he can speak Czech and Romanian.
 * Orphan's Ordeal: His time in foster care was rather rough.
 * Parental Abandonment
 * Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Callen witnessed his mother's murder but suppressed the memory most of his life.

Sam Hanna (LL Cool J)

 * Bald of Awesome
 * Big Brother Instinct: According to Nate, it's his biggest weakness: trying to protect everyone.
 * Cultured Badass
 * Cunning Linguist: If there's a foreign language the team needs, Sam probably has it. Thus far, he's demonstrated Arabic and Japanese (two particularly hard languages).
 * Omniglot: Sam speaks native English with Arabic, Japanese and Spanish.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Callen. When they're not the below.
 * Ho Yay: With Callen. When they're not the above.
 * Living Emotional Crutch: For Callen. It's said that "his partnership is the only stable thing in his partner's life."
 * The Lancer
 * Scary Black Man

Eric Beale (Barrett Foa)

 * Adorkable: Very.
 * Closet Geek: A very, very transparent closet--one that embarass him occasionally around Nell. Varies between this and Proud to Be a Geek.
 * Hollywood Nerd
 * Hollywood Hacking: Generally averted, occasionally played painfully straight.
 * Mission Control
 * The Smart Guy
 * Non-Action Guy: The one time he's forced into the field, he's terrified he'll have to carry a gun. Hetty gently informs him she wouldn't forgive herself for forcing him to carry a weapon, and he's happy to return to Ops when he's done.
 * UST: With Nell.

Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah)

 * Action Girl
 * The Big Guy
 * Clear My Name
 * Disappeared Dad: He died.
 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In Daniela Ruah's home country of Portugal, pretty much every single ad for the show either focuses almost entirely on her and/or includes the words "Starring Daniela Ruah!".
 * Ladette: Views of her home are basically that of a bachelor pad.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Perhaps the inevitable result of being the only female regular under the age of 40, although she's fairly mild compared with some.
 * Omniglot: She can speak English with Portuguese and Spanish. (In real life, Daniela can speak the last two languages fluently aside from English). In "The Dragon and the Fairy", she displays her proficiency in French.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Lampshaded in the Crossover with Hawaii 5-0, McGarrett describes her as this.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Deeks
 * Wrench Wench: She was an only child, so her father taught her everything he'd teach a son, including things like fixing a car and wiring a house.

Nate "Doc" Getz (Peter Cambor)

 * A Day in the Limelight: One episode has him contemplating becoming an agent and teaming up with Kensi temporarily. Everyone thinks he wouldn't make a good agent.
 * Hidden Depths: Plays the harmonica.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Everyone's mockery of the idea of Nate in the field. Considering how awesome he is in the field now . ..
 * The Profiler
 * Put on a Bus
 * Took a Level in Badass: In season two, Nate goes away for an episode or two, comes back, and somehow picked up the ability to shoot. Everyone wonders what happened.
 * Turns out
 * Non-Action Guy: He used to be--his desire to carry a gun and end up in the field were mostly Played for Laughs. Then he took the aforementioned level of badass.
 * Turns out
 * Non-Action Guy: He used to be--his desire to carry a gun and end up in the field were mostly Played for Laughs. Then he took the aforementioned level of badass.

Dominic "Dom" Vail (Adam Jamal Craig)

 * Black and Nerdy: He had his moments. His bobble-head was the best example.
 * Butt Monkey: As the new guy, Dom copped a lot of flak.
 * New Meat: A Police Procedural version of this.
 * Put on a Bus
 * The Smart Guy
 * The Smart Guy

Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen)

 * Abusive Parents: His dad tried to shoot him at least twice. Or maybe once. The show is a little unclear about it.
 * Afraid of Needles: He faints when Hetty gives him a shot in 3x21
 * Ascended Extra: Got promoted from recurring character to principle cast in season 2.
 * Butt Monkey: As the newest on the team, G, Sam and his partner Kensi all tend to pick on him, though he tends to either shrug it off or play it up. In one or two tense episodes, it's implied he sets himself up for teasing to lighten the mood.
 * The Chick: To an extent
 * Chivalrous Pervert: For variable levels of chivalry and perversion.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
 * Drama Queen: He is always freaking out in the worst times. Normally used for comical relief.
 * Friend to All Children: Seems to have a knack for bringing kids out of their shells.
 * Hidden Depths: Grew up playing the violin, and seems to be able to sing as well.
 * Ship Tease: With Kensi.
 * Sixth Ranger
 * Standard Cop Backstory : He shot his father when he was 11. The last time Deeks saw him, his father tried to shot him with a shotgun on Thanksgiving.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Kensi
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Kensi
 * The Woobie

Nell Jones (Renee Felice Smith)

 * Adorkable
 * The Smart Guy
 * The Chick: Occasionally.
 * Hollywood Hacking: Generally averted, occasionally played painfully straight.
 * UST: With Eric.

Henrietta "Hetty" Lange (Linda Hunt)
"Hetty: I sense impending mayhem. And perhaps an outrageous petty cash request."
 * Badass Bureaucrat
 * Badass Grandma
 * Cool Old Lady
 * Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon
 * Expansion Pack Past: At times.
 * Genre Savvy: Her team always approaches her desk one at a time unless called over. When Callen and Hanna walk up to her together:


 * Guile Hero: She is once called The Duchess of Deception
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Since when did Gaia become the head of an NCIS branch?
 * The Atoner:
 * The Mentor
 * Miniature Senior Citizens
 * My Greatest Failure:
 * Mysterious Past: She could tell you, but she'd probably have to kill you.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Hetty, like a certain Edna Mode, is modelled after of costume designer Edith Head. In "Imposters" she mentiones to have worked with Bette Davis on Death on the Nile, so Hetty might actually be Edith Head in the NCIS universe.
 * Parental Abandonment: Her parents died shortly after being freed from a Nazi concentration camp and she was adopted.
 * Spot of Tea
 * Team Mom