Pauley Perrette (born March 27, 1969) is an American actress, best known for playing Abby Sciuto on the U.S. TV series NCIS. She is also a published writer, singer and civil rights advocate. Perrette also co-owns the "Donna Bell's Bake Shop" in Manhattan, which is named after her late mother.
Perrette was born in New Orleans and raised all over the southern United States. On The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, she told host Craig Ferguson that she lived in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and California. In a 2011 interview with the Associated Press, Perrette confessed her early ambitions were to work with animals, be in a rock and roll band or be an FBI agent. She attended Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, where she studied criminal justice, and later moved to New York City to study at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. While in New York she held a variety of jobs: "Not only was I bartending in club-kids scene, with a bra and combat boots and a white Mohawk, but I also wore a sandwich board on roller skates passing out flyers for Taco Bell in the Diamond District." Perrette also worked as a cook on a Manhattan dinner cruise boat.