What We Know About NCIS Star Lauren Holly's First TV Role

Actor Lauren Holly has maintained her ability to score impressive roles in television and film throughout her career in entertainment. Some of Holly's notable TV work includes starring as Julie Chandler in "All My Children" for three years, playing Maxine Stewart in "Picket Fences" for four years, and portraying Jenny Shepard on "NCIS" for three years. She has also been in very successful movies like "Dumb and Dumber" and "What Women Want."

Becoming an entertainer, however, was not a career path she initially planned to embark upon. Before her first television jobs, Holly didn't even think she could make enough money to survive through acting. "I didn't plan on becoming an actress because it didn't seem like something that I could make a living at and I thought I was going to go to law school," Holly said to FilmFad. "Things were much more planned out and I sort of fell into the hobby of it studying in London at The Royal Academy."

Once she was in college, that's when things changed. She explained, "I auditioned for a play that a guest director saw me in and sort of started me on my odyssey. So it was something that I always loved to do, I just didn't know I could make a living doing it." So, how did she get her big break in the industry?

Lauren Holly's first TV acting gig was on the '80s cop drama series, "Hill Street Blues," as per IMDb. Holly appeared in two episodes from Season 5: "Ewe and Me, Babe" and "Last Chance Salon." This was a positive start for Holly's career, as the series was a groundbreaking venture that had already garnered numerous Emmy Awards by the time Holly earned the role, as reported by The Guardian.

Holly portrayed Carla Walicki, a young prostitute who was trying to earn money as quickly as she could in order to move to Long Beach. In "Ewe and Me, Babe" her character was first introduced when fellow prostitute Lotta Gue, played by actor Laura Sorrenson, was being investigated by law enforcement officers.

In "Last Chance Salon," Holly's character was busted by the cops for prostitution, and Detective Harry Garibaldi, played by actor Ken Olin, urged Carla to better her situation and go to rehab, as an IMDb description noted. Holly gave a solid performance in the role, and it started a strong path to TV stardom.

This "Hill Street Blues" performance prepared Lauren Holly for a long-running career in Hollywood. It led to another one of her early TV roles when she next portrayed Julie Chandler in "All My Children," which again called for her to act as a runaway who was engaging in prostitution. The dramatic part on the soap opera was an important learning experience for Holly that further made her ready for any role that came her way, as she explained in a 2016 interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine.

"It was one of those things with a huge learning curve for me," Holly said of working on "All My Children." "I always say if directors want a hard-working actor, they should take them off of soaps because that is a daily grind." Since these beginning experiences in television, Holly's TV work expanded and has continued into recent years. From 2010 to 2012, she played Haulie in the animated series "The Adventures of Chuck & Friends," and from 2013 to 2016 she portrayed Dr. Betty Rogers on the crime drama show, "Motive."

Holly is definitely a force in the world of television and film, and it is always a treat for fans to see what role she will take on next!