She is portrayed by Pauley Perrette; in the season 10 episode "Hit and Run," a young Abby was played by Brighton Sharbino in flashbacks.

"[4] The character's gothic style of dress and her interest in death and the supernatural contrast with her generally hyperactive demeanor and enthusiasm about her work.

Prior to taking up a career in acting, Pauley Perrette had studied at John Jay School of Criminal Science in New York, having previously aspired "to work with animals, be in a rock 'n' roll band, or be an FBI agent.

Sharbino, who strongly resembled Perrette, reportedly spent time with the latter "in part to pick up on the NCIS vet's mannerisms and such.

However, Perrette has expressed dislike for the spider tattoo, saying, "It only takes a few minutes to do, but it feels like old chewing gum,"[7] and had wished for an episode where her character Abby would have it removed.

"[11] Abby drives a candy-apple red 1930/31 Ford Model A coupe bearing a Washington, DC, personalized vanity plate "4NS CHIK" which is prominently featured in season five's "Dog Tags".

Like Gibbs, Abby enjoys caffeine,[7] primarily in the form of large cups of a fictional drink called "Caf-Pow".

(According to Perrette, the cups were originally filled with Hawaiian Punch, but when she stopped eating and drinking refined sugar, unsweetened cranberry juice was used in its place.

It is also shown that she enjoys attending concerts, but her failure to wear earplugs at one of them left her with temporary hearing loss the next day, forcing her to ask DiNozzo for help analyzing some audio evidence.

Exposed, Chip threatened her with a knife; she promptly subdued him, hog-tied him with duct tape, and insisted on being allowed to work alone from then on, something to which then-Director Jenny Shepard agreed.

She tricks him into believing that she has spiked his coffee with a fatal dose of cyanide, then offers to give him the antidote in exchange for his confession; the ploy succeeds and he is quickly arrested by the agents.

[25] In the episode "Crescent City", she is shown to have a relationship with Senior Special Agent Dwayne Cassius Pride, who runs the New Orleans NCIS office.

Gibbs generally tolerates Abby's goth dress style, knowing that she does a great job in her work, but often has to ask her to get to the point when she starts rambling.

For example, in the episode "Spider and the Fly", Alejandro Rivera came to NCIS and began to threaten Abby for not sending in a report about the murder of Pedro Hernandez, Rivera's father, whom Gibbs had killed 20 years previously in revenge for Hernandez killing Gibbs' first wife, Shannon, and young daughter, Kelly.

This was solidified in the episode "Capitol Offense" when Ziva bought Abby a "chocoholic's choice" cupcake in gratitude for giving her a place to stay while her home was being fumigated for termites.

In "Twilight", after Tony narrowly avoids being part of an explosion on his first day back from sick leave after getting pneumonic plague, she runs at him and hugs him so hard he nearly falls over.

In the episode, "Frame-Up", she almost single-handedly unravels the forensic evidence used to frame Tony of murder to clear his name, then subdues the killer – her assistant Chip Sterling – when he threatens her with a knife.

[5] Some erotic teasing and tension continues between the two for the next several seasons, implied through such facts as McGee's apparent ability to describe the inside of Abby's bedroom in his novel.

Their flirtation became less prominent in later seasons, and TV Guide Senior Critic Matt Roush suggested this was due to the producers' apprehension about using romance within the series to an excess.

[28] He reasoned, "pairing up all four members of Gibbs' team romantically might seem like overkill, and the Tony-Ziva dynamic (even if not exactly acted upon) is so integral to the show's core that I'm not surprised they've kept McGee and Abby on more of a loving-sibling level.

In the NCIS: Los Angeles episode "Random on Purpose", Abby, having been previously seen on video conference or talking to someone from her lab in Washington, DC, arrived in Los Angeles to meet the Office of Special Projects (OSP) team as she informed them she was investigating a serial killer called the Phantom who had murdered 15 people all over the country and had also left no DNA or even physical evidence at the scenes.

Having already formed a strong friendship with Eric Beale, Abby developed friendships with the OSP team, including G. Callen (Chris O'Donnell), Sam Hanna (LL Cool J), and most notably the operations manager Hetty Lange (Linda Hunt), who commented that Abby is "the first NCIS employee [she] has ever met with a sense of style".

[29] Kensi Blye, another NCIS Special Agent, who is an expert in forensics, praised Abby for her high levels of thinking, stating that she lived up to the hype.

To date, Abby has not returned to Los Angeles nor has she reappeared in any video-conference calls which strongly suggests that her appearances in season one were just one-offs.

During the first season of NCIS, Ross Warneke from The Age wrote of the character, "Her role is pivotal in the show because, as with so many crime series these days, the forensics laboratory is the scene of much of the action.

and commented, "the tattooed Abby, the presumed slacker who is anything but, is Bellisario's not-what-she-appears-to-be tribute to Magnum, a functioning, well-balanced Vietnam vet who contrasted many depictions of the era.

"[10] The New York Times writer Bill Carter described Abby as "television's only regular goth personality" in October of the same year.

[32] In 2009, David Martingale of Star-Telegram wrote, "Abby Sciuto, a forensics scientist who, with her caffeine-fueled high energy and kooky Goth/cheerleader wardrobe, is one of a kind".

"[5] C. Coville from Cracked criticized the choice to describe Abby's age as "late twenties" in her 2009 guest appearance on NCIS: Los Angeles, finding it unbelievable for someone who "has still somehow picked up a PhD in chemistry, bachelor's degrees in sociology, criminology, and psychology, and good knowledge of hacking and computer forensic science".

[37] In April 2013, a study by E-Poll Market Research listed Pauley Perrette and Cote de Pablo, who portrays Ziva David, among the top 10 most appealing celebrities in America.