Anthony DiNozzo

Anthony D. "Tony" DiNozzo Jr. /dɪˈnoʊzoʊ/ is a fictional character in the CBS series NCIS, portrayed by Michael Weatherly. Created by Donald P. Bellisario, he appears as the senior field agent on Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ team for the first thirteen seasons, known for his charm, pop-culture humor and investigative skill. Early reception was mixed due to his chauvinistic behavior, though the character grew more positively received over time.

DiNozzo departs the series in season thirteen after learning he has a daughter with Ziva David, who is believed to have died. Weatherly later made a cameo in the season 21 episode "The Stories We Leave Behind" and subsequently reprised the role alongside Cote de Pablo for the spin-off NCIS: Tony & Ziva.^{[citation needed]}

Michael Weatherly was cast for the role of Anthony DiNozzo in 2003. Series creator Don Bellisario related the events that led to Weatherly being selected:

I liked him from the first moment I met him. I first met him in Australia, where he was doing The Natalie Wood Story, and he was playing R.J. and the agents called me, or the casting director called me, and said, "I would like you to meet Michael Weatherly." And I was on my last day down there, and I said, "Yeah, I'm going home tomorrow. You know, I'll meet him when he comes back to the States. I'm going out to dinner with my family tonight. I just don't have the time." I received a phone call from Michael, and Michael knows how to flatter you. He started off by saying, "Oh, I love Magnum, P.I...." And then he started telling me all the things he knew about Magnum. And I said, "Look, if you want to go to dinner with me and my wife and two of my boys, you're welcome." Well, that ended up to be a three-hour dinner. It might have gone longer. I liked him so much that I cast him in the show after that meeting.

On another occasion, Bellisario stated, "I can't say enough about Michael Weatherly...He started out on NCIS [playing] a character who was just very unlikable to some women because he was just such a chauvinist, and he has gradually over the [seasons] changed—taken his character and softened it."

Weatherly said that he had initially been reluctant to join a JAG spin-off and explained, "But I went and had this dinner with Don Bellisario in Australia and his personality, his storytelling and his presence and everything kind of won me over." He later commented, "I got very lucky with Don Bellisario. He directed two of the first three episodes, and he really pushed me to try things and experiment and some of the wacky comedy came out of that. And it was kind of unexpected and I didn't really know what I was going to find."

At another point, Weatherly said, "It's kind of fun to play a total dinosaur in terms of sexual politics... The shallow end of the philosophical pool is obviously where Tony paddles around." In the same interview, actress Cote de Pablo (who portrays character Ziva David) added, "There's something deeper about that character. We always talk about the superficial element and the things that make us laugh. But he wouldn't be doing what he does if he wasn't really good at it. He's a complex character, and that's why people love him."

Weatherly directed his own performance of the character in the 2011 episode "One Last Score" and the 2013 episode "Seek". In 2016, the character was written out of the series due to Weatherly having tired of the grind of production, stating that he felt "like a circle that had gone all the way around and I really felt happy with the resolution of character and my time on the show".