Main Characters
- CSI Level 1: Doctor Raymond “Ray” Langston (Laurence Fishburne) On the characterization of Langston, CBS previously explained, “His focus is on understanding criminal behavior, how and why people commit acts of violence - tendencies he disturbingly sees within himself. In the course of a murder investigation, he comes into contact with the CSI team and ultimately joins the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a Level-1 CSI.” Langston was once a doctor, working in a hospital. A co-worker murdered 27 patients, and all the evidence showed up before him, but he never put the evidence together.
- CSI Level 3 Night Shift Supervisor: Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) is the night shift team supervisor for the Las Vegas CSI unit. She was promoted to this position with the resignation of Gil Grissom in the episode One to Go (2). An early subplot involved Catherine constantly requesting promotions or ways to spend more time with her daughter Lindsey. Catherine’s ex-husband Eddie and her father Sam Braun were both murdered on episodes of the program. She supported herself through college by working as an exotic dancer. This character is loosely based on real life CSI Yolanda McCleary.
- CSI Level 3: Nicholas “Nick” Stokes (George Eads) is an easygoing and friendly former college baseball player and fraternity member from Dallas, Texas, with a degree in criminal justice from Texas A&M University. Because of being molested at a young age, his character is portrayed as more empathetic than his co-workers, which has drawn several rebukes from others, and tends to get more emotional about cases. In the episode Grave Danger, Nick was buried alive. He survived but it has changed him a lot. This was very noticeable in Gum Drops when he got very emotional searching for the missing little girl who was thought to be dead. He was also stalked in “Stalker” when a repairman named Nigel Crane thought that Nick was his best friend. He helped a prostitute with whom he later had a relationship. She was murdered, making him a suspect in Boom. He speaks fluent Spanish.
- CSI Level 3: Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) was formerly the lab’s DNA technician. Greg entered field training and in the season five episode “Who Shot Sherlock?” became a full-fledged CSI. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of DNA and trace analysis. In the season 7 episode “Fannysmackin’”, Greg is brutally beaten by a gang of youths while rescuing a victim. Greg is an Eagle Scout. He also wrote a book about the history of Las Vegas, and often becomes intrigued with cases that date back to “old Las Vegas” when it was run by the mob. Greg is promoted to CSI level 3 in the episode “19 Down”.
- Chief Medical Examiner: Doctor Albert “Al” Robbins (Robert David Hall) is the head county coroner. He is married with three children, and is close friends with David Phillips, the assistant coroner who works for him. He has two prosthetic legs, and it has been implied that he lost them in an accident while trying to dig up a floor at a crime scene; this disability is drawn from actor David Hall himself, who lost his legs in a road traffic accident.
- Trace Technician: David Hodges (Wallace Langham) is a lab technician who transferred to the Las Vegas crime lab from the Los Angeles crime lab. Hodges’ appearances provide some comic relief, though most of the team finds him obnoxious and irritating. Hodges’ first appearance was in the third season episode “Recipe for Murder”, and he became billed as a regular cast member starting with the season 8 episode “Dead Doll”. He has had a crush on fellow lab technicians Mia Dickerson and Wendy Simms, and once got all the other lab workers to collaborate and try to solve The Miniature Killer case, discovering a key clue. It is also noted that Hodges has an uncanny sense of smell, and is able to identify many key chemical compounds by their scent alone, such as cyanide, which to those who possess the gene like Hodges does, smells like bitter almonds. The majority of humans possess ability to smell the bitter almond odor of cyanide, Hodges sense of smell for this chemical, however, is more acute than that of the average person.
- CSI Level 2: Riley Adams (Lauren Lee Smith) is a former St. Louis police officer who became a crime scene investigator. She comes in as a second-level CSI to the understaffed Las Vegas unit, which is still shaken by the shooting of Warrick Brown.On May 15, 2008, a press release was issued by CBS confirming that Lauren Lee Smith will join the cast of CSI in the ninth season as Riley Adams, a role expected to fill the void left by the departure of Sara Sidle in the previous season. According to the press release, Adams will be a non-conformist who joined law enforcement to rebel against her father, who is a psychiatrist.
- LVPD Homicide Detective: Captain James “Jim” Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) was the head of the CSI unit in Las Vegas until he was moved back to the police homicide division in the second episode. He is originally from New Jersey. He continues to work with CSI’s despite problems in season two with his daughter, Ellie, who is a drug addict and a prostitute in Los Angeles. It was discovered in the season 2 episode “Ellie” that he is not Ellie’s biological father. From the second episode onwards, Brass remains a captain in the homicide division and works closely with the graveyard shift CSI team. He very often conducts witness and suspect interviews. In the season 6 episode “Bang Bang”, Brass was shot twice by William Cutler after convincing him to release his hostage.
Former Main Characters
- CSI Level 3 Night Shift Supervisor: Doctor Gilbert “Gil” Grissom (William Petersen) was the night shift team supervisor for the Las Vegas CSI unit, and a forensic entomologist with a degree in biology from UCLA. He is known for being a very thorough and methodical scientist, as well as a bit of a quirky introvert. Grissom is proficient in sign language and used to have otosclerosis (inherited from his mother), but he underwent corrective surgery. He was raised Catholic and is now lapsed.It was revealed to the viewers on the sixth season finale “Way To Go” that he has been in a relationship with Sara Sidle. He successfully proposed marriage to her in the eighth season. This character is loosely based on real life criminalist Daniel Holstein. William Petersen was originally reported to have renewed his contract for the show’s ninth season, but the Associated Press reported on July 15, 2008, that Petersen was leaving the show as a regular following Season 9’s tenth episode in order to pursue more stage acting opportunities. He will return for guest spots during the show’s run, as needed. In his final scene as a regular, he is shown meeting his fiancee, Sara Sidle, in the rain forest of Costa Rica.
- CSI Level 3: Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) was a materials and element analyst. Sidle was a physics major at Harvard University, and previously worked for the San Francisco coroner and crime lab. She replaced Holly Gribbs after helping investigate her death. She is completely devoted to her job and will go to almost any lengths to make sure that justice is served, for both victims and criminals. She is often very cold in her tone and demeanor. Sara’s alcoholic father used to beat her and her mother Laura, until one day Laura snapped and stabbed him to death; as a result, Sara has emotional difficulties when dealing with abuse cases against women and children in her job. She was placed into foster care following her father’s death and her mother’s subsequent institutionalization. Sidle accepted a marriage proposal from co-worker Gil Grissom in the season 8 episode “The Case of the Cross-Dressing Carp”. A few episodes later, in “Goodbye and Good Luck”, Sara leaves the team following a difficult case. She did not say good bye to her fellow CSIs or Grissom, for whom she only left a note stating that she had to go face the ghosts of her past, something that she couldn’t do in Las Vegas. She returned for a guest appearance in the season 9 premiere for Warrick’s death. She also appeared in episodes 902, 905 and 910.She is shown in a guest appearance in Grissom’s last episode when he meets her in the Costa Rican jungle.
- LVPD Homicide Detective: Sofia Curtis (Louise Lombard) was a CSI who became part of Grissom’s team after the mid–season five split, decided by the Assistant Director of the crime lab, Conrad Ecklie. She soon considered resignation, upset at the fact that she had been demoted from acting day shift supervisor. In season six, Curtis makes a career shift from CSI to detective. Sofia was a recurring character in season five, and became a regular character in season seven, and Louise Lombard was billed in the opening credits. Sofia appeared in the season eight premiere, “Dead Doll”, where Louise Lombard was billed as a “Special Guest Appearance”. She has never been seen since “Dead Doll.”
- CSI Level 3: Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) was an Audio-video analyst. Brown was a Las Vegas native and a chemistry major from UNLV. A major facet of Warrick’s character portrayed in the show is that he was a recovering gambling addict, his recovery hindered by the fact that he worked in Las Vegas. New CSI Holly Gribbs was killed at a scene in CSI’s first episode, while Warrick was out laying a bet. He almost lost his job for not being with her at the time. Grissom’s friendship and support has helped him a great deal in overcoming his addiction, but his compulsion is one of the reasons used by Conrad Ecklie to investigate and then split up the night shift team in season five. Warrick had a deep affection for his hometown and used his experience as a former gambler and casino runner in his investigations. Warrick was married in season six, but divorced by season eight. It was revealed in the Season 9 premiere that he had a child. Warrick Brown’s character will not return in Season 9, since actor Gary Dourdan and CBS could not come to terms on a contract. As a result, in the Season 8 finale, the corrupted undersheriff shoots Warrick in the neck and chest while he is sitting in his car, and then leaves him to die from his wounds. In the opening moments of the Season 9 premiere, he dies in Gil Grissom’s arms.
