Claire Forlani has been cast as Lauren Hunter, the new team operations manager, on ‘NCIS: Los Angeles,’ insidetv.ew.com is reporting. The news was announced even though Linda Hunt is playing Henrietta “Hetty” Lange, the team’s current operations manager, on the hit CBS military/police drama, and is still considered to be a main character.

Forlani will first star on ‘NCIS: LA’ on May 10, and both Lauren and Hetty will appear on the Season 2 finale, which airs on May 10 and ends in a cliffhanger. CBS has not yet announced who will return as the operations manager for the show’s third season in the fall.

Lauren, who will just be a recurring character for the second season, has been described as “attractive, authoritative, cool and calculating.” She doesn’t let her guard down often, but when she does, she has a “dangerous quality that suggests she is much more than your run-of-the-mill operations manager.”

Written by: Karen Benardello

Claire Forlani
Claire Forlani

By Karen Benardello

As a graduate of LIU Post with a B.F.A in Journalism, Print and Electronic, Karen Benardello serves as ShockYa's Senior Movies & Television Editor. Her duties include interviewing filmmakers and musicians, and scribing movie, television and music reviews and news articles. As a New York City-area based journalist, she's a member of the guilds, New York Film Critics Online and the Women Film Critics Circle.

6 thoughts on “Claire Forlani Cast in NCIS: LA Role Already Held by Linda Hunt”
  1. Don’t they dare take Hetty away! I will instantly stop watching the show! She is the female Gibbs! Mark my words, CBS, your ratings for this show will go down if you drop her!

  2. I’ll stop watching as well, I love Hetty, her tea, her advise, her caring ways, strict but soft…. May 10th is the last NCIS L.A. episode I will watch… they have low numbers now?! they will get lower if Hetty goes.

  3. I’ll stop watching as well, I love Hetty, her tea, her advise, her caring ways, strict but soft…. May 10th is the last NCIS L.A. episode I will watch… they have low numbers now?! they will get lower if Hetty goes.

  4. If Hetty leaves I will no longer be watching this program.  You had a great show going and you have now destroyed it.  If in the next 2 or 3 shows Hetty does not return you have lost a full time fan. 

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