Stella Bonasera

Stella Bonasera
CSI: NY character
First appearance	"MIA/NYC NonStop"
Last appearance	"Vacation Getaway"
Portrayed by	Melina Kanakaredes
City	New York City New Orleans
Information
Occupation	Police Detective
Position	Crime Scene Investigator
Rank	NYPD Detective First Grade CSI Level III Assistant Supervisor Director of the New Orleans Crime Lab
Duration	2004–2010
Seasons	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Other Appearances	CSI: Miami (2)

Detective Stella Bonasera is a fictional character and a co-protagonist of the CBS crime drama CSI: NY. Portrayed by Melina Kanakaredes, Stella appeared in six seasons of CSI: NY, after which she was replaced by Jo Danville, played by Sela Ward.

The character of Stella Bonasera is Mac Taylor's second-in-command in the fictional New York Police Department's crime lab of the television show CSI: New York. Throughout various episodes, the writers of the show have revealed that Bonasera began her career working as a patrol officer and once worked Narcotics out of Brooklyn North. She is portrayed as a character with a bold personality, and her unflagging determination to solve a crime has earned the character at least four complaints on her record as a result. Her badge number is "8946".

Stella is a half-Greek, half-Italian orphan (though she identifies more with her Greek side) who grew up at St. Basil's Orphanage. She left when she was eighteen (episode 115, "Til Death Do We Part"). In the season 5 episode "Grounds for Deception", it is revealed that Stella's mother was a restoration painter from Naousa who brought two-year-old Stella with her when she came to New York with an exhibit. Soon after the exhibit, her mother was killed in a traffic accident. Stella is fluent in Greek and has spoken some Italian on the Can You Hear Me Now episode (Season 4, episode 1). She has briefly read a Cyrillic Russian message in the Blink episode (Season 1, episode 1) and also briefly spoke in Russian with a spray-on pantyhose suspect in the Run Silent, Run Deep episode (Season 2, episode 20). She was in foster care in her early life. It is revealed that a professor, whom Stella was close to, got her out of foster care. Stella is also religious and can be seen crossing herself with holy water in a church (episode 8, "Three Generations Are Enough).

Stella's personal life was the subject of a few episodes in Season Two. A boyfriend named Frankie Mala first appeared in the second episode of Season Two, "Grand Murder at Central Station", and he appeared occasionally throughout the rest of the season. In an episode late in Season Two entitled "All Access", after discovering that Frankie had secretly taped them making love and uploaded the footage to the internet, Stella broke off their relationship. In the same episode, Frankie breaks into her apartment shortly after and takes Stella hostage in her home. Stella manages to free herself and, fearing for her life, is forced to kill Frankie with her service weapon in self-defense. In "Dancing With The Fishes", when examining the case of a dancer who falls from New York's only tram onto a car below, Stella notices the bunions and toe injuries and reveals that she was a student of jazz, tap and ballet, and later demonstrates this knowledge in a short basic sequence of dance steps which leaves both Mac and Flack impressed.

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Wikipedia