A Look At Sean Murray From Hocus Pocus To NCIS

"NCIS," which has been going strong since 2003, aired for its 19th season what CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl described to TV Line as a "transition year." After all, longtime star Mark Harmon, who played Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs on the show, had finally left the cast after almost two decades in October 2021. The series needed to figure out what it would look like without Gibbs around, which gave the rest of the cast a chance to step up and fill the void left by the fan-favorite series lead. In September 2022, TV Line reported that the show's 20th season seemed to finally have made a decision: the first person who shows up in the "NCIS" opening credits these days is none other than Sean Murray, who plays Special Agent Timothy McGee.

While Murray has been on "NCIS" since the first season, he wasn't a regular until Season 2. Many viewers now know and love the actor thanks to his "NCIS" character, but he's been working steadily in Hollywood since he was a teenager, even if he did spend one of his most recognizable roles trapped as a cat that was voiced by someone else. Here is a look back at the career of Sean Murray, from "Hocus Pocus" to "NCIS."

In a short amount of time, a young Sean Murray managed to rack up an impressive list of co-star credits in the early '90s. He would soon go on to work with major names like Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and both Beau and Lloyd Bridges, but in 1993, the young actor had a minor role in "This Boy's Life." In the film, which also starred Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin, Murray shared the screen with none other than a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

Decades later, Murray told the Television Academy that he had his scene partner pegged as a star from the very beginning. "It was Leo's first role and I remember just in the couple scenes, the sequence we did, I remember thinking 'Oh, this kid's gonna be big, I know it,'" he said. "... And he became big, obviously. He's done all right." Understatement of the decade!

DiCaprio, too, was thinking often about the star status of his co-stars while filming the movie. When the Los Angeles Times asked him if he found working with De Niro and Barkin intimidating back in 1993, he answered, "I just tried to not concentrate on it because then I would be too involved with them and not my performance in the movie." Wise words from a future Oscar winner.

Shortly after starring in "Hocus Pocus," Sean Murray was cast on "Harts of the West," a Western-themed comedy-drama that aired for a season on CBS between "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and "Walker, Texas Ranger." Reviews, to put it mildly, were quite bad. In the 1993-1994 show, Murray played Zane Grey Hart, the teenage son of a ranch family. Other cast members included father-son duo Beau and Lloyd Bridges, and Murray even learned how to ride horses while starring on the show.

"Harts of the West" is an interesting footnote in Murray's career because it also marked his first time working with his future "NCIS" co-star, Mark Harmon. The man who would later play Gibbs appeared on the second episode of "Harts of the West," guest starring as a rodeo clown hired to work at the Hart family ranch. Murray later told Country Living that the part was originally supposed to be played by yet another Bridges boy — Jeff — but a scheduling conflict prevented "The Big Lebowski" star from making an appearance. "They got Harmon to come and do the part instead ... which I'll never forget. That's where I first met Harmon. And he made an impression on me even back then," Murray recalled. 

In an interview with the Television Academy, Murray added of Harmon, "When I joined the cast of 'NCIS' he of course remembered me and was just as wonderful as when I knew him at 15."

For Sean Murray, working in the entertainment industry means working in the family business. His stepfather is none other than Don P. Bellisario, the creator of shows like "Magnum, P.I.," "Quantum Leap, "JAG," and, of course, its far more successful spinoff "NCIS." Bellisario, though, didn't want the two series to be connected; he later told the Archive of American Television that he argued with CBS' head honcho at the time, Les Moonves, about it, asking for his name to be taken off the billboards and for the connection between the shows to not be advertised. Bellisario explained that he wanted "NCIS" to capture a younger audience than "JAG" had, and he worried that younger viewers would write it off if they knew the shows were tied together. CBS went ahead with promoting the spinoff connection, however, and Bellisario was admittedly upset. "It was a mistake, because exactly what I said would happen, happened," he said. 

Bellisario stepped aside as showrunner after Season 2, per TV Guide, thanks to a behind-the-scenes feud with Mark Harmon ... the same season his stepson became a series regular. And if the last name Bellisario sounds familiar, it might be because Donald's daughter is "Pretty Little Liars" star Troian Bellisario! That makes her Murray's stepsister, which is fitting, considering Troian played the younger sister of Murray's "NCIS" character, Timothy McGee, on a Season 4 episode called "Twisted Sister" (pictured above). The episode saw Troian's character reach out to her brother after she fears she might have killed someone, putting his investigative skills to work.

When he's not on set playing a member of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Sean Murray has another passion: music. "I'm basically a music nerd, especially when it comes to electronic music," he told Forbes in 2017, while in a prior interview with Icon vs. Icon, the actor gushed about his love of rap and hip-hop. "Any hip-hop fan who is not listening to Earl Sweatshirt yet should be!" Murray insisted. "... He is doing hip-hop on another level." He added that the best live show he'd ever been to was a Jay-Z concert in Los Angeles, which he watched from the seventh row.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, in his spare time, Murray also makes his own music — but he hasn't released anything publicly. He taught himself how to play guitar, but he explained to Forbes that his musical talents don't stop there. "I have actually got a lot of equipment that I muck around with creating sounds," the star said. "I can also play a little piano, drum machines and synthesizers." Murray even showed off his home studio in his 2021 home tour with People. 

"Music will always be a vastly important part of my life," Murray told Icon vs. Icon. "I would love for people to hear some of the sounds I can make, so [releasing] it is a possibility!"

As previously mentioned, Sean Murray's childhood involved moving around a lot because his father was in the Navy, and as a result, the future star often felt like he never really had a home. Now grown up and married, Murray has concentrated on making sure his kids don't feel the same way, and he told People in 2021 that he spent 10 years designing the home they share in Los Angeles. The overhaul initially started with things like fixing a drainage issue, then redoing the landscaping, adding a Jacuzzi, tearing out a glass-block entry wall, and more. However, as Murray recalled, "It got to the point where my wife even said to our designer, 'Just talk to Sean about the details.' I totally fell in love with it."

He gave the magazine a home tour on YouTube at the time, showing off his handiwork and his eye for design as he pointed out things like new wood paneling, family photos, the dining room, and more. "The bar! I gotta show the bar off!" he exclaimed, standing in front of a built-in bar cart complete with stocked shelves. "I don't drink, but I do like to show a good bar for those that do. ... We keep the bar packed very well."

For her part, wife Carrie James proudly shared the People article on Instagram, writing in the caption, "Sean gave a great interview and shared the story of how we made this house, a home."

In 2022, as the 19th season of "NCIS" was drawing to a close, Sean Murray marked a milestone: his then-14-year old daughter, Cay Ryan Murray — who wasn't even born when her famous dad began acting on the show! — appeared in an episode with him. In the episode titled "The Brat Pack," Cay played Teagan, a girl who comes to realize that her online boyfriend is involved in a string of crimes ... and might be trying to pin the whole thing on her.

While this episode of television is Cay's only IMDb credit, as of this writing, Parade noted that she attends a magnet school for Music & Performing Arts in Los Angeles, and she also acts at the Youth Academy of Dramatic Arts. "When you're hanging out between filming ... and you're sitting in your chairs in your little room waiting during the setups, I'd be there with my daughter, and it didn't feel like I was hanging with my daughter. I felt like I was with another actor," Sean told the magazine.

The happy dad also shouted out his daughter's television debut on Instagram that April, writing in part, "I couldn't be more proud." As Express marked, many "NCIS" fans were happy to see her act onscreen, commenting positively about her guest spot on social media. "Fantastic work tonight with your daughter. She hit every mark," one fan wrote.