Not Only Does Scott Bakula Play the Piano, He Was Once Nominated for a Tony Award

For fans of NCIS: New Orleans, Scott Bakula, aka Special Agent Dwayne Cassius "King" Pride, is one of the biggest reasons fans tune in every week to make the action procedural one of the most watched shows in America.

"This part's a great part," Scott said back in 2015, shortly after landing the role in an already hit franchise. Now, close to five years later, Scott has shown no signs of slowing down.

The Quantum Leap and Desperate Housewives actor is occasionally seen tickling the ivories as his character of Dwayne Pride on NCIS, but fans of the series wonder whether Scott Bakula actually plays the piano, or if that's just a colorful detail that adds to his character. Keep reading!

Multi-talented actor Scott Bakula has been wowing fans with his portrayal of a wide range of characters ever since he got his on-screen start as Jeffrey Wilder in 1986's The Magical World of Disney.

But when his character of Dwayne Pride began playing the occasional piano number on the New Orleans-based show, fans were eager to find out whether the actor is as musically talented as Pride is.

And it turns out, he is! But the actor is not just a trained pianist; Scott is also a talented singer. "I play piano," Scott revealed in an interview with CBS This Morning. "Ah, isn't that strange or interesting that they didn't pick clarinet for me or something," he joked.

"I sing a lot," he added, saying that he hopes Pride can get singing more on the show as well. Scott, who was trained in musical theater, revealed that he had a hand in working his own musical talents into his character's, "so that I can play some piano."

The 65-year-old takes a lot of musical inspiration from New Orleans, where NCIS is set. "As a musician, to be in the place where jazz was born, and be in that environment is breathtaking all the time," he went on to say.

Who remembers Quantum Leap, the show from the late '80s and early '90s about a physicist named Sam Beckett who travels in time to change history?! To this day, despite his many years of playing a special agent, Scott says his Quantum Leap character is what he is most remembered for and most frequently asked about.

In the show, Sam Beckett also sings and plays the piano, and Scott Bakula's rendition of "Somewhere in the Night," which the actor actually wrote for the 1985 episode "Piano Man," is available for fans to watch and enjoy here.

Taking this deep dive into Scott Bakula's musical history and CV, we also happened to learn that the actor and musician was once nominated for a Tony Award in 1988. He starred as one of the leads in the Broadway musical Romance/Romance, portraying wealthy playboy Alfred, who pretends to be a struggling poet in order to break his pattern of having endless inconsequential affairs.

Watch Scott Bakula show off his musical talents on NCIS: New Orleans. New episodes air Sundays at 10 p.m. on CBS.