Join The Club
Brian Dietzen is one of the longest-running actors on NCIS, and that’s continued throughout the 2026 TV schedule. Since the first season of the CBS procedural, Dietzen has portrayed Dr. Jimmy Palmer and, as it stands, it (thankfully) doesn't seem like the actor is looking to step down from that post. And, as if acting in 23 seasons wasn’t enough, Dietzen has also written four episodes and, evidently, it was a somewhat uneasy chat with a producer that led to that responsibility.
For context, Season 19 marked the first installment of NCIS to be written by Dietzen, as it was Episode 13, “The Helpers,” from 2022. He also wrote an episode each for Seasons 20 and 21, including the emotional Ducky tribute episode, “The Stories We Leave Behind.” And Dietzen most recently penned a script for Season 23.
While appearing on the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast, series executive producer Mark Horowitz mentioned to co-hosts Dietzen and Diona Reasonover, who has also written a few episodes, that they’re the only stars to not only act but write on the long-running procedural. With that, Horowitz questioned them about how they started writing for the show. Dietzen recalled wanting to do right by Jimmy and how that contributed to a discussion with EP Steven D. Binder:
[Writing] came up for me when David McCallum was starting to work a little bit less and less. And I was getting some scripts and — I remember saying to Steve Binder at one point, who was running our show alongside Frank Cardea, and I said to him, ‘You know, it feels like a lot of my dialogue, it feels like an elderly Scottish man is saying it. And it feels like maybe we could Jimmy up this thing,’ And Steve, on his way out the door, goes, ‘Hey, look, if you think you can do better, just do it. Alright, you’re a writer. You’ve written us a feature. Just do it.’ And he left, and I was like, ‘OK, cool.'
NCIS isn't the first project that Dietzen has written for, as he co-wrote the 2012 family romance dramedy Congratulations and served as co-director. I appreciate how Dietzen really took notice of Jimmy's characterization and realized that his dialogue was not where it should've been. Such honest comments speak volumes to the affection the actor has for his character and the series overall. Nevertheless, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have been a little shaken after that talk with Binder.
Thankfully, though, those weren't the last words Binder and Dietzen exchanged with one another on the matter. Ultimately, Dietzen took his collaborator's suggestion to heart, and that culminated in a follow-up chat that was much more relaxed:
And I went home, and I wrote, you know, 10, 12 pages, and just of scenes. And I called him the next day. I said, ‘Hey, remember how you said I should just write it?’ He goes, ‘Oh, yeah. I meant to call you. I was kind of short with you. I didn’t mean to be an asshole, but my apologies.' I said, ‘No, no. I wrote this. I wrote some pages for you.’ And so I sent them over to him, and he goes, ‘Oh, do you want to write an episode?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sure. I will.’
The rest is TV history, and I'm so glad it all worked out. As a massive NCIS fan, I'd say it's all the better for having Brian Dietzen's voice in the writers' room.
As Horowitz pointed out, there are a lot of shows on which actors step behind the camera to direct, including NCIS. However, not a lot of them have actors writing episodes as well, and the fact that the military drama has not one but two of them is pretty impressive.
With NCIS is returning for Season 24 this fall following the big cliffhanger, it’s possible that Brian Dietzen could once again write an episode. Of course, nothing has been confirmed, and filming hasn’t even started yet. However, even if it doesn't happen, fans till have a lot look forward to following Season 23. In the meantime, viewers check out the episodes Dietzen wrote by streaming them with a Paramount+ subscription.
