Tyla Abercrumbie as Mary Jo Hayes in NCIS: ORIGINS – “The Gambler” | ©2025 CBS/Erik Voake

NCIS: ORIGINS, the prequel series to CBS’s twenty-three-and-counting-seasons hit NCIS, is now in its second season Tuesday nights on CBS, with episodes thereafter streaming on Paramount Plus. Renewed for a third season, NCIS: ORIGINS explores the early professional adventures of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stovell on ORIGINS, Mark Harmon on the original NCIS) as an agent in the U.S. Navy Criminal Investigative Service, which is still the Naval Investigative Service in the early ‘90s, when NCIS: ORIGINS is set.

The only civilian in the Camp Pendleton NIS offices is Field Operation Support Officer Mary Jo Hayes, played by Tyla Abercrumbie.

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Abercrumbie had spent six seasons in her hometown as a beleaguered mother on Showtime’s THE CHI just before being cast on NCIS: ORIGINS. Some of Abercrumbie’s other credits include the features WE GROWN NOW, DREAMING GRAND AVENUE, snd ANIMATOR, and the series SHRINK, UNEXPECTED, and THE CHICAGO CODE.

At a party thrown by CBS for the Television Critics Association (TCA), Abercrumbie sits down to talk about Mary Jo and NCIS: ORIGINS.

Unlike some other ORIGINS characters who we originally met as their later selves on NCIS, Abercrumbie explains, “Mary Jo Hayes did not exist in any of the previous shows, which is really exciting, because it allows not only for me to develop a character but for the audience to meet somebody brand-new. There are a few characters that they will know from the past and you’re seeing their younger selves. But someone like Mary Jo, you don’t know. So, that gives an element of surprise, I think, to where these stories are going to go.”

Even before NCIS: ORIGINS began airing in 2024, Abercrumbie encountered a lot of people who were excited about the show and to hear that she was a regular on it. “People who know me or are fans of some of my other work, or friends or family, they would ask me, ‘Oh, you’re out in L.A., what are you working on?’

“And I was surprised by how many people are like, ‘I love that show.’ Even if it’s at the nail salon, ‘Oh, I’m working with NCIS: ORIGINS, it’s a new show.’ And they’re like, ‘I love NCIS!’ So, learning how large their fan base is, or the fan base is, because I’m now a part of it, it was really like, ‘Wow.’ I’d watched some episodes, I’ve watched quite a bit more now that I’m involved.

NCIS: ORIGINS – Season 1 Key Art | ©2025 CBS

Mary Jo describes herself as “Head Secretary in Charge.” How does Abercrumbie describe her?

“We look at Mary Jo as the glue that keeps the group together. She runs the office, she knows more details than everybody, because she’s been there the longest, and her and Franks [the officer in charge, played by Kyle Schmid] have a really good working relationship. She works directly under Franks primarily but works for all of the agents.

“What’s important is that she keeps it moving in there and she keeps everyone grounded. When there’s a person who’s involved who isn’t an agent, but still has a desire to contribute, that’s what Mary Jo does from where she sits, right? She does it being that administrator that can give them anything  they need, when they need it. She knows what they want. That’s what [the writers are] creating, this fixture who is basically the mother bear of the group. She keeps an eye on all of them.”

What drives Mary Jo?

“I find that what I’m making her base is that ‘I am not going into the military,’ I would have said for the character, ‘I’m too old for the military now, but I still want to be involved in serving my country, I still want to be involved in making a difference. And once you start working in the environment, that’s my contribution. This is what I do.’

“When you want to make a difference in the world, you start from not trying to be somebody you’re not. You start from where you are, and what can you do that is that important to change? You have to look at that and appreciate that. You can’t look at it and go, ‘I want to be military,’ you have to say, ‘This is what I know how to do well, and this is going to be my service, and this is going to be my contribution.’”

In terms of research, Abercrumbie relates, the cast had “the good fortune of going to Camp Pendleton, which I thought was great, because you get to see with that what these agents have lived through. You see the military gentlemen and ladies walking around in their uniforms. And we visited NCIS offices, we could see what that was like, the forensic lab, the interrogation room. So, that was good for me, that’s good dramaturgy for me to have that history.”

Abercrumbie’s personal history has also been an asset. “What I think I bring to Mary Jo that no one can give me is, I am a Black African-American woman, and I am in a male-dominant industry, and I was an administrator. And so, I’ve played that role in real life as an executive secretary for an insurance company, for an advertising company, for several people. And so, I know what it’s like to be that person that everyone goes to and expect to know what they need before they need it. And so, I have that for me as research,” she laughs.

How did Abercrumbie make the transition from admin to acting?

“I have been an actress for a very long time. I think it was in my early twenties that I accepted that I wanted to be an actress. I knew that I wanted to be an actress in my teens and I had lessons, but the idea, when you come from my background – we were rich in mind, body, and spirit, but we were financially poor – you want to take on a career that’s going to pay. And acting, an artist just seems like, ‘Cut it out,’ you know what I mean?

“I worked full-time and did community theatre, and print modeling, and voiceover – I did it all, because it was always what I wanted to do, was be an artist, and make my living at only being an artist. So, I’ve always known it, and when the jobs started paying, it was like, ‘Now I’m no longer an amateur, I’m a professional!’

“I was getting paid a little money but still working full-time jobs. There just becomes a time when you’re like, I made the decision, ‘Am I going to do it, or am I going to keep hoping for the best?’ And so, I left working a regular job but I’d already been taking jobs that only paid stipends, and then jobs in theatre – now, you can get ‘sort of a living wage,’ I say in quotes, but it’s still not substantial. You almost need to have a second job. But I decided to pursue it, and I made steps for myself.

“There was a point at which I just said, ‘I’m going to do it full-time, and then I have to insist that I make this amount of money.’ There came a point where I had to say, ‘Okay, Tyla, you can’t take a job for less than your rent.’ I was doing work, I was getting paid, but I wasn’t making enough money. So, I had to say, ‘Okay, well, clearly, if you don’t make your rent, you can’t take these jobs.’

“And the universe is divine. I really believe when you open your spirit up to that, you’ll be amazed at what comes your way. But there was never a moment when I said, ‘Oh, now that I’m making enough money, I can quit and be a full-time actor.’ No. There was the moment of, ‘If you’re going to be a full-time actor, you need to be a full-time actor.’ And so, I was laid off from my job, and I just focused on this. I did community theatre, I did whatever I needed to do.

“So, no, it wasn’t because I started getting paid that I started doing it. I was always doing it, even when I wasn’t getting paid. But once I left the corporate world of being an executive assistant, I said I was going to it full-time. And this, being a series regular, has been a long road, and so I’m grateful to have it, but I’ve played on many shows, so this is the next level.”

Since NCIS: ORIGINS is set in the ‘90s, is there anything about the tech or styles of that decade that Abercrumbie had to learn about?

“Since I lived through the ‘90s, not really. I love history as just Tyla, the person, so it’s nice to revisit always, whether I’m in a play in the ‘40s or a series in the ‘90s, it’s very nice to revisit the time that you feel like you’ve moved so far away from.”

However, “It shocks me, I think, the idea that we didn’t have DNA [technology], the idea that there are no cellphones, and there’s no GPS at our fingertips. All of those things that we use so freely now that you didn’t have in the ‘90s makes me go, ‘How did we even survive?’” Abercrumbie laughs. “Because it’s such a necessity now. That part intrigues me.”

And what would Abercrumbie most like people to know about NCIS: ORIGINS?

“I know it’s sometimes really hard to get fans [of the original NCIS] to open up to see something different when they’ve been so engaged for so long, but I would love for them to, one, give us a chance, two, take the risk of knowing that you don’t ever want to miss the beginning of a story, right? You don’t want to miss the beginning of the movie. And NCIS: ORIGINS is the beginning of NCIS. So, just trust us and come see it.”

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