Who Is NCIS Star Rocky Carroll's Wife, Gabrielle Bullock?
"NCIS" fans are obsessed with Director Leon Vance's forthright manner and hidden agendas. Veteran actor Rocky Carroll has been portraying the role in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service since its fifth season. He also plays the same role when he occasionally crosses over to spinoffs "NCIS: Los Angeles." It's a role that has exceeded his expectations. "The amazing thing is I joined the cast of this show at the end of season five and I literally thought to myself that I came in on the tail end of a really good thing," he told CBS Los Angeles. "At least I can say I'll be here for the last two seasons. That was 14 seasons ago." Over a decade later, and he has become a firm fan favorite thanks to his intimidating demeanor, but Carroll reports that things work a bit differently on the home front.
In a 2009 interview with People, the star revealed that his character and his real-life status as husband and dad were nothing alike. When asked if his power status was the same at home, he replied, "Director Vance doesn't wield as much power with my wife." He went on to list the important things that mattered to his wife at the time. "As long as I feed the dog and the garbage is taken out, that's what is important." Who is this woman who commands so much power in the Carroll household? Meet Gabrielle Bullock and be prepared to be blown away.
Gabrielle Bullock in an award-winning architect
Rocky Carroll and his wife Gabrielle Bullock tied the knot on May 25, 1996, per The Baller Life, but her role extends beyond mother and wife. In fact, she discovered early on that she had talent. She told the Los Angeles Times that a teacher suggested, "You could be an architect.' I only needed to hear that once. I went home and told my mom I was going to be an architect." It seems as if the idea grew on her and she started taking note of her surroundings as she traveled between neighborhoods. "I had friends and family who lived in public housing," Bullock said. "I saw how the Black community was living, and it was an embarrassment. I wanted to change that."
Back in 1984, she was only the second Black female student to have ever received her architecture degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, and right from the start, she knew her worth. When one firm wanted to pay her less than her rate at the time, she wasn't having it. "I wasn't playing that game. I said, 'Pay me what you owe me.'"
Today, Bullock is the Director of Global Diversity at Perkins & Will. She was also the first African American and first female to hold the position of Managing Director of the firm. Architect reported that Bullock won the 2020 Whitney Young Jr. Award, which recognizes her commitment to social responsibility within the architectural sphere.
Rocky Carroll and Gabrielle Bullock planned for their daughter
Gabrielle Bullock, wife of "NCIS" star Rocky Carroll knows how to balance work and family. She told the Los Angeles Times, "I'm an organizer." In a 2019 interview with Madame Architect, Bullock also dished on being a mom to their daughter, Elissa. "I have an 18-year-old [in 2019]; she's in her first year of college," the proud mother said. "We actually adopted her as a newborn when I was forty. I tried to have children, couldn't, and so adopted her." Bullock also divulged that the addition to the Carroll-Bullock family was not by accident. She confirmed, "I will tell you that having my child was as planned as it could be." A meticulous planner, she is.
The architect also revealed that she made her dream of having a family work with a little forethought. "I knew that I wanted to have a career and that I wanted to have a family, and I didn't want either to compromise the other," she said. Bullock shared that she refused to travel for work until her daughter was eight years old. She reminisced, "I had to convince myself that it was OK to be away from her, that she had a father there for her."
Even though she's a rockstar in the architecture world, Bullock told the Los Angeles Times that Carroll had her beat. She joked, "Google me and you get Rocky Carroll." You win some, you lose some.