After the murder of her father, born in Greece, Stella Bonasera (played by Melina Kanakaredes) grew up in various foster homes, where she took care of her younger sisters and took responsibility for them. After her schooling, she attended the police academy and was subsequently employed with the New York Police Department, called the NYPD, at patrolling, where she met Mac Taylor.

When Mac Taylor transferred from the NYPD to CSI: NY, Stella followed him, committed to pursue forensic investigations. In the chain of command of the CSI, she stands as Taylor's deputy in second place.

Based on her difficult childhood with traumatic experiences, Stella Bonasera has a strong personality, and has been nicknamed Statue of Liberty by her colleagues because of her Greek-Italian background. This is also due to the fact that Stella hangs with all her heart to the metropolis of New York City.

Stella Bonasera has a high IQ and lives almost exclusively for their work. She is known in the team for her accurate operation, however, she reacts very emotionally and personally, which sometimes leads to problems between her and Mac Taylor.

The characterful woman does not shy away from any confrontation and speaks her mind. She approaches her investigations with full commitment and is always prepared to follow up a track not necessarily with back-up, which sometimes leads to problems.

She is on friendly terms with her colleagues Lindsay Monroe and Detective Don Flack – however, her closest friendship is with Mac Taylor. The connection between the two is so close that it she is the only one in the team expressing her opinion and concern about his health.

Neither Stella Bonasera escapes fate in the series CSI: New York. When she is injured by a shard of glass at a crime scene investigation, she initially doesn’t make too much of it. Later, when she finds out that the victim was HIV positive, she now fears to have contracted the disease.

Of course, she undergoes a blood test immediately at her colleague Adam, which requires, however, some time. In addition to Mac Taylor, he is the only one who knows of her possible illness. The fear of disease is a heavy burden for her and instead of talking to her friends about it, she prefers to be left alone with her problem.

When the pathologist of CSI: NY suffers an allergic shock, her rescues him immediately and saves his life. Since there was no time to look for the mouthpiece actually prescribed, they had to provide help without the aid, which posed the danger that Sid could become infected. Ultimately, the test, however, turned out to be negative, which is a great relief for Stella.

Since Stella Bonasera is half Greek and was born in Greece, she speaks the language fairly fluently. When she flies to Greece as part of a murder investigation with Mac Taylor, she can put her language skills to the test.

At the end of the sixth season, Stella Bonasera finished her work for the CSI: NY, and attempts to transfer to a CSI unit far from New York.