Claire Forlani has been cast as Lauren Hunter, the new team operations manager, on ‘NCIS: Los Angeles,’ insidetv.ew.com is reporting. The news was announced even though Linda Hunt is playing Henrietta “Hetty” Lange, the team’s current operations manager, on the hit CBS military/police drama, and is still considered to be a main character.

Forlani will first star on ‘NCIS: LA’ on May 10, and both Lauren and Hetty will appear on the Season 2 finale, which airs on May 10 and ends in a cliffhanger. CBS has not yet announced who will return as the operations manager for the show’s third season in the fall.

Lauren, who will just be a recurring character for the second season, has been described as “attractive, authoritative, cool and calculating.” She doesn’t let her guard down often, but when she does, she has a “dangerous quality that suggests she is much more than your run-of-the-mill operations manager.”

Written by: Karen Benardello