Greg Sanders

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Greg Sanders
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation character
Image:Sanders 43570.jpg
Gender	Male <tr><th align="left">Hair color</th><td>Brown with blond highlights</td></tr>
City	Las Vegas
Job	Lab Tech, CSI <tr><th align="left">Rank</th><td>CSI Level 1</td></tr><tr><th align="left">Position</th><td>Night shift CSI</td></tr>
Current status	Alive <tr><th align="left" valign="top">Known relatives</th><td>Olaf (Grandfather), Nana Olaf, unnamed parents</td></tr>
Portrayed by	Eric Szmanda
First appearance	The Pilot

Greg Sanders (born May 5, 1975) is a fictional character featured on the US crime drama television show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Greg is played by Eric Szmanda.

Greg Sanders grew up in San Gabriel, California. Although friends and family told him that science was for geeks, Greg knew from a young age that he wanted to become a scientist. In Coming of Rage (season 4 episode 10), we find out that he had a palate expander, braces, a retainer, and head gear while growing up. Although he was never good at sports, Greg was the captain of the high school chess team. In Fannysmackin' (season 7 episode 4), Greg reveals that his overprotective mother refused to let him play sports in high school because he was her only child, after the deaths of his three siblings.

Greg successfully managed to juggle studying and athletics, and eventually went on to earn his degree in chemistry from Stanford University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He has a wide variety of hobbies, including surfing, scuba diving, and numismatics (the study of money - in the episode Precious Metal his knowledge of the subject helps the investigation along). In Precious Metal we also learn Greg likes supermodels and latex.

Greg could be considered the most "normal" member of the CSI team. He's always smiling, he remains somewhat optimistic and he maintains a lot of interests aside from his Crime Lab work (he listens to Marilyn Manson while running lab machines and hides porn magazines in some area cabinets). This is most likely due to his youth; he hasn't been fully subjected to the horrors of this job like the rest of the team. He is also not concerned with the financial aspect of a job -- just the joy that it brings.

In one episode (season 3 episode 22 Play With Fire) he was involved in a lab explosion, which he survived. In another episode (season 7 episode 4 Fannysmackin') he is severely injured after he risks his life to save a tourist being beaten to death by a gang of teenage thrill seekers. He later tells Gil Grissom that he has kept his promotion to CSI a secret from his parents because he didn't want to worry them. Grissom tells Greg his mother will be proud of him for saving a man's life. In a later episode (season 7 episode 7 "Post Mortem") Greg's split-second decision to run over one of the men threatening the tourist is found to be "excusable." The man's family disagrees with the verdict and serves Greg with a civil suit.

He started out as the resident lab rat, sitting quietly in his lab working away on the loads of evidence and DNA the CSIs brought in, usually responsible for making discoveries about pieces of evidence that would crack a case open. Eventually Greg grew tired of the lab and longed for a position out in the field. He failed his first test when he urinated in a toilet at a crime scene, but eventually attained the rank of CSI level one. At his low rank, he mostly only assists at crime scenes, collecting evidence and helping the more experienced CSIs. He rarely interviews suspects. However, he later graduated to investigating crime scenes on his own. In Fannysmackin' (season 7 episode 4), Greg celebrated over dinner with the female district attorney after his testimony at a jury trial helped put away a criminal.

Early on in the show, Greg had a huge crush on Sara Sidle, which may or may not have disappeared. However the two remain close friends, as Sara was Greg's mentor through his training and continues to offer him helpful hints.

Greg is also notable for his ever-changing hairstyles.

1 Education
2 Family
3 Trivia
4 Quotes

[edit] Education

From the official CSI: Crime Scene Investigation novels, written by Max Allan Collins, the seventh installation into the novel series- Killing Game, we learn that Greg was a child prodigy. He got his first lab kit at the age of seven.

Excerpt from the book, page 114, lines six - 11:

" A precocious kid who'd started matriculating a year early, he went from public school, where he regularly blew through tests, to an academy that at least presented him a more significant challenge; then Greg had gone on to Stanford before spending two years as a lab tech at the San Francisco PD. "

Then from the same book, at page 117, lines 12 - 18:

" Through most of his life, Greg had fought the prodigy's natural urge to rush through things. A lot of school, especially high school, had been painfully easy for him. He would wait until the night before (or even the morning) before class to do his homework. This habit had stayed with him, though the lab had nullified that somewhat. "

[edit] Family

He is part Norwegian, which was revealed in season 3 episode 3 (Let the Seller Beware):

Grissom: Your mother's maiden name is Hojem, correct? Hojem is Norwegian?

Greg: Yeah. And you know, my grandfather got tossed from Norway for getting my grandmother pregnant before they got married. To this day, he still tells me "som man reder, så ligger man".

(pause)

Greg: One must lie in the bed one has made.

His heritage was also mentioned in season 5 episode 5 (Swap Meet):

Hodges: Good thing you don't have to pass a spelling test to work in the field. 'Funtain' water?

Greg: My people are Norwegian. That's how we spell it.

(Note: Fountain in Norwegian is "fontene".)

He has mentioned on several occasions his grandfather, whom he affectionately calls 'Papa Olaf.' He also mentions his Nana Olaf in season 6, episode 19 (Spellbound). She apparently possesed psychic powers, and his family believes that Greg may have inherited this ability from her.

[edit] Trivia

Owns a Dreamcast.
Likes merlot and rack of lamb.
Once lived in New York.
Knows how to fold an Origami crane.
Enjoys Blue Hawaiian Coffee
Has seen the movie Pulp Fiction-- 'Friends and Lovers'
Attended Stanford University.
Likes surfing and scuba diving.
Was born with perfect eyesight.
Captain of the high school chess squad.
Likes Pink (singer-songwriter).
Listens to Marilyn Manson.
His ringtone is "Feel Like Makin' Love".
He's into latex.
Likes fashion models.
Has a coin collection.
A Los Angeles Dodgers fan.
Wore Doc Martens in high school and thinks that skinheads' enthusiasm for that style "ruined them for the rest of us." (Fannysmackin')
Lost his virginity when he was 22.

[edit] Quotes

(Response to Stokes: "What's up, Einstein? Got anything?")
"You think Einstein had people hovering over his shoulders all the time? If he did, don't you think that we'd be walking around with E=MC squared shirts?"
(Response to Stokes: "She must've been chained up.")
"If she was, she was wearing something pretty funky."
(Response to Stokes: "Liquid Latex? Never heard of it.")
"It's all the craze right now, man. Girls paint it on guys. Guys paint it on girls. You can paint it on yourself if you want, if that's what you're into. You just won't be able to get a date."
(Response to Grissom: "I'm going to need a urine sample.")
"This is some CSI hazing. You guys should appreciate blood and semen more."
"For the record, I really like having a penis, thanks."
Sanders: "I could have been a rockstar."
Grissom: "There's still time, Greg."
Sanders: "I'm like a sponge, I just absorb information."
Grissom: "That's my line."
Sanders: "Yeah, and I absorbed it."
Gil Grissom: Where's your enthusiasm?
Greg Sanders: Whenever I find a match in here, my world gets a little smaller. Out there I felt large.
Gil Grissom: Out there means a pay cut.
Greg Sanders: I'm not about the money.
Greg Sanders: But, you know, what I need to know is what's on the inside?
Nick Stokes: Oh, what's in her heart?
Greg Sanders: No... her DNA. And let me tell you, this girl has got some fine epithelials.
Nick Stokes: [laughing] Dude, you're sick. Man, you've officially lost it!
Greg Sanders: No, no. There is this guy in Louisville. He charges 300 clams to test your spouse's underwear for foreign DNA. Now, that guy is sick. I'm just a romantic.
Nick Stokes: But whatever happened to getting to know someone over coffee, letting the relationship evolve? Romantic is sending flowers, not bogarting her skin cells.
Greg Sanders: Ahh, that's boring.
Gil Grissom: Hey, Sanders, no punk rock.
Greg Sanders: What about Black Flag?
Gil Grissom: Are you nuts?

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Episodes \| Characters \| Official website
Characters	Gil Grissom \| Catherine Willows \| Nick Stokes \| Warrick Brown Sara Sidle \| Jim Brass \| Greg Sanders \| Al Robbins Sofia Curtis \| Conrad Ecklie
Former Characters	Holly Gribbs \| Paul Millander \| Lady Heather
Creator(s)	Anthony E. Zuiker
Computer Games	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation \| CSI: Dark Motives CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder
Related Series	CSI: New York \| CSI: Miami