The Famous Actors Who Got Their Break on Show

Before Timothée Chalamet set foot on Arrakis, before Pedro Pascal started battling post-apocalyptic fungi, before Bradley Cooper, Viola Davis and Samuel L. Jackson became Bradley Cooper, Viola Davis and Samuel L. Jackson, they all underwent the same New York actor initiation: showing up on Law & Order to get murdered, accused of murder, arrested, raped, stabbed, stalked, strangled or — in John Stamos’ case — commit condom-related crimes too weird to get into here.

Since the franchise began shooting on the streets of New York in 1990, it has become more than a rite of passage for hungry young actors — it’s become the East Coast’s most reliable incubator of future stars. Michael B. Jordan, Kerry Washington, Claire Danes, Idris Elba, J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney, among scads of others, all got their start by getting interrogated by Jerry Orbach or Mariska Hargitay.

Of course, it wasn’t only unknowns who landed on the procedural as perps, victims and corpses. Established names wandered through, too: former child actors eager to prove they had a darker gear, comedians stretching dramatic muscles, even giant movie stars doing favors for their boyfriends. Julia Roberts, who was dating Benjamin Bratt at the time, dropped by the set in 1999 to play a glamorous party planner caught up in the murder of a powerful real estate mogul.

Still, it’s the bit players who later became big deals that make reruns extra eye-popping. So, what follows here is a who’s who of Law & Order guest stars, back when many of them were still nobodies.

Chadwick Boseman

Law & Order (2004)

“Can I Get a Witness”

He’d done a recurring stint on All My Children and a guest spot on Third Watch, but at 27, this was his biggest, juiciest role yet: a drug dealer who murders a guy for hitting his girlfriend, then rides around on a bicycle intimidating witnesses. Eight years later, he’d break out with a very different turn, playing Jackie Robinson in the baseball biopic 42.

Timothée Chalamet

Law & Order (2009)

“Pledge”

Chalamet’s first professional acting job — at all of 12 years old — was playing a schoolboy who gets murdered at home, along with the family housekeeper. He didn’t get a ton of screen time — he was dead by the first commercial break — but the episode helped tee him up for beefier roles in Homeland and Interstellar … and, ultimately, Oscar-nominated tentpoles like Dune and Marty Supreme.

Bradley Cooper

Law & Order SVU, Law & Order Trial by Jury (2005)

“Night,” “Day”

Four months before Wedding Crashers made him a movie star, Cooper — then 30 and best known for supporting roles in TV shows like Alias and Jack & Bobby — guest starred as a slick defense attorney for a wealthy serial rapist. His episodes are a rare franchise anomaly — a two-part series crossover that included one of the few spinoffs to flop. Trial by Jury lasted only 12 episodes, canceled quicker than even Law & Order L.A.

Claire Danes

Law & Order (1992)

“Skin Deep”

Two years before My So-Called Life would turn her into the thinking teenager of the ’90s, 13-year-old Danes was playing the victim of a skeezy fashion photographer who preyed on underage models. Keen-eyed viewers will also spot future Six Feet Under actress Lauren Ambrose, then 14, in a bit part as another of the victimized models.

Viola Davis

Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2002)

“Badge”

She’d already won a Tony for her role in August Wilson’s King Hedley II and had popped up in films like Traffic, Kate & Leopold and Antwone Fisher, but most audiences first encountered Davis as a school security cop who’d been secretly robbing and murdering drug dealers. Davis’ tightly wound performance was impressive enough to rate a return engagement; the franchise brought her back the following year for a seven-episode arc on SVU.

Adam Driver

Law & Order (2010), Law & Order SVU (2012)

“Brilliant Disguise,” “Theatre Tricks”

Driver had just graduated Juilliard and was earning his chops with stage work and film shorts when he landed his first franchise spot, playing a young man tied to the murder of a girl he’d met online. By his second episode two years later — playing an obsessive theater-world creep at the center of a rape case — he was already famous, thanks to Girls, which premiered that same year.

Idris Elba and Kerry Washington

Law & Order (2001)

“3 Dawg Night”

Washington was 24 and just starting to get noticed — Our Song had come out the year before; Save the Last Dance was just about to be released — when she played the girlfriend of a famous rapper accused of murder (spoiler alert: Turns out she did it). Elba, who played a nightclub floor manager in the episode, was 29 and had done British TV, but was still grinding it out as an actor on this side of the Atlantic. He didn’t have long to wait — a year later he’d be cast in The Wire. Washington’s breakout came a bit later, in 2012, with Scandal.

Elle Fanning

Law & Order SVU (2006)

“Cage”

Fanning was just 8 years old when she landed her guest spot — although, remarkably, it wasn’t her first screen credit. She’d already done I Am Sam, Daddy Day Care and Babel. Still, it was definitely a different sort of role; she played a foster child caught up in a deranged child-abuse plot that involved cages, attachment therapy and a foster mom played by Margo Martindale.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson

Law & Order (1991)

“The Violence of Summer”

Hoffman was just 23 and fresh out of NYU when he nabbed his first credited screen role playing a rape defendant in an episode loosely based on the notorious 1989 Central Park jogger case. Jackson, who played his defense attorney, was 42 at the time, and better established — he’d done turns in 1989’s Do the Right Thing and 1990’s Goodfellas — but nothing like the scripture-spouting Pulp Fiction sensation he’d become three short years later.

Allison Janney

Law & Order (1992, 1994)

“Star Struck,” “Old Friends”

The future C.J. Cregg’s first franchise appearance was a don’t-blink role as the assistant of a murdered diva soap star — not much of a stretch for the then-32-year-old actress who’d served time as a player on As the World Turns and Guiding Light. But it was her second appearance two years later that put Janney on the map. She played a baby food executive turned key witness against her corrupt business partner and his Russian mob ties — who ends up getting shot in the third act.

Michael B. Jordan

Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2010)

“Inhumane Society”

Years before Creed put him in the ring for real, Jordan turned up on Criminal Intent for an episode that mashed together boxing, dogfighting and murder. The future Oscar winner plays a young fighter being tugged between a trainer and his old crew, while bodies start dropping around a Michael Vick-style scandal.

Rooney Mara

Law & Order: SVU (2006)

“Fat”

Mara was 21 when she did her SVU episode, and so green she wasn’t even called Rooney yet. She’s listed in the credits as “Tricia.” By any other name, she played a high school girl who lures another teen into a revenge assault. Her big sister Kate, by the way, got to SVU first, with a 2001 episode in which she played a hyper-competitive gymnast who murders a teammate.

Pedro Pascal

Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2006)

“Weeping Willow”

In his first appearance, he played a young actor hired as a fake kidnapper in a staged internet-abduction hoax that goes wrong. At the time, Pascal, then 31, had a smattering of TV credits to his name (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NYPD Blue), but the franchise turned out to be great résumé stuffing. He was brought back as a sleazy thug at the center of a rape case; as the husband of a woman caught up in a blackmailing scheme; and as a federal agent who gets arrested for murder — before he eventually broke out with much less criminal roles in The Mandalorian and The Last of Us.

Zoe Saldaña

Law & Order (1999)

“Refuge: Part 2”

Saldaña started out as a trained dancer and stage kid, not a screen actor. But at 21, she landed a guest spot — her very first screen role — as a Kosovar refugee who helps detectives take on a Russian-mob money-laundering operation. Within a decade, she was headlining in tentpoles like Star Trek and Avatar.

Ann Dowd

Law & Order (1991, 1994, 1996, 2003), Law & Order: SVU (2001, 2003, 2009), Law & Order: CI (2004) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005)

“On ‘Compassion’ for Law & Order, I played Dr. Beth Alison, a pediatric oncologist inspired by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. I read two of Elisabeth’s books, including the famous one, On Death & Dying. I learned so much about grief and the way she guided people through the process. I went to Sloane Kettering [in New York] and asked if they would meet with me. A man came out and I said, ‘I’m so sorry to bother you but I was hoping you could share about the work you do. I know we are doing make believe and what you do is very real.’ He was so kind and said, ‘No, we want you to get it right.’ I’m so grateful for the chance to say thank you to Law & Order for every experience I’ve ever had. It truly is the most wonderful cast and crew and they could not have been more kind. They taught me how to treat actors who come onto a show that I’m on because of how they welcomed me into their home, their actual home. It can be scary to be a guest star when you’re the new person so I model that behavior. I go up to every person and say, ‘Welcome. We’re glad that you’re here.’”

J.K. Simmons

First appearance on Law & Order (April 13, 1994) as Jerry Luppin followed by a regular role as Emil Skoda on Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: CI

“Sanctuary”

“My first job was playing who helps Jerry Orbach and Chris Noth’s characters by showing them footage of a suspect that happens to only have the back of the guy’s head. I remember being so thrilled to get the job. We shot in this tight space looking at this old monitor. I was on Broadway at the time in Guys and Dolls, and the shoot was going on for a few hours Jerry somehow knew I was meant to be on stage. I’ll never forget this but he went up to the director and said, ‘Hey, this guy is one of the stars of Guys and Dolls, we need to get him wrapped so he can make his performance.’ They treated their guest stars so well and it’s something that I have taken with me for the rest of my career. The professionalism and kindness was top down there.”

Carol Burnett

Law & Order: SVU (2009)

“Ballerina”

“I told Mariska while I was there that their show reminded me of my show, The Carol Burnett Show, because it was like a family. Everyone appreciated everyone else. No ego involved, none of it. The writers were wonderful and I made a couple of suggestions and they would say, ‘OK, yeah, good. Let’s try that.’ It was a lovely time. I can’t praise it enough. Between takes, everybody was joking and laughing. Because it’s such a heavy show, everybody was loose. I had that same experience when I did Better Call Saul. I got nominated for an Emmy for guest star for my role. When I went to the awards, I sat next to Ellen Burstyn, who was also nominated for Law & Order: SVU. We had such a ball. She won for her part and that was really fun. I also got to meet some of the cast members there that I didn’t have scenes with, like Ice-T and that was fun. I remember Mariska asked me if I had ever met her mother which I had years ago when I played Las Vegas and [Jayne Mansfield] was there. We all went to a party. She couldn’t have been sweeter, and I think that’s where Mariska gets her kindness and sweetness from. It’s in the genes.”

Patricia Arquette

Law & Order: SVU (2012)

“I was a big fan of Mariska, and it was an interesting part to play a New York prostitute who was ashamed of what she was doing and tried to hide it from her kid. They came to me with a series of photographs that an incredible photographer had taken after he spent all this time with prostitutes in Long Island. The photo essay was incredible. I didn’t have much time to like work on the dialect or any of that, so I was kind of freaking out. They booked me a flight to New York for a fitting and then we were supposed to start shooting right away. But that day or two days later, Hurricane Katrina hit and all the sets were destroyed and everything rained out. I was able to volunteer during Katrina, and I went to the Rockaways in Queens with doctors from Bellevue. We dropped off food and got insulin to people who needed it. Honestly, the whole thing was amazing. They got it together to start shooting in a couple of days and so we jumped into it. I was very happy to be there and be a part of it, and it was kind of dreamy for me. Everyone on set was all so warm and sweet. It really does start with Mariska’s vibe, and she’s so sweet and warm and welcoming kind to everybody, and she loved her crew, and you could feel it.

Patricia Clarkson

Law & Order (1990)

“By Hooker, By Crook”

“I got the part at a time when I really needed rent money. I had done [Brian de Palma’s] The Untouchables and worked with Clint Eastwood [on The Dead Pool] but getting a part on Law & Order was prestigious. I got a call to play Ms. Laura Winthrop, a version of the Mayflower Madam. I was very, very close to the late and great Richard Greenberg, a great playwright. We were roommates and best of friends at Yale. I called to tell him I got the part and he said, “Patty, you are perfect. This is a perfect character.” The other part of this story is that when Rich and I were roommates, we lived in a kind of fancy apartment even though we had no money coming out of Yale School of Drama. Serendipitously, we lived across the hall from a very, very fancy, high class lady of the evening. We befriended her and her Johns. We thought to ourselves, “Oh my God, we’ve made it.” As a New York actor, I’ve done Law & Order and am now working with Scorsese. That’s all you need. It is a club. It’s a reputable, beautiful, adventurous club. It’s like the High Line in New York.”

Felicity Huffman

Law & Order (1992, 1997)

“Helpless,” “Working Mom”

“I auditioned for ‘Helpless’ and was over the moon when I got the job. I loved shooting in New York City, especially riding my bike to set each day. One afternoon, I sat down in a chair on set while we were waiting to light the scene. An older series regular walked over and said something like, ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’ Caught off guard, I stammered, ‘Oh no — I’m actually in this episode. I’m an actress, my name is…’ He cut me off, booming, ‘You’re sitting in my seat! Where do you get off sitting in my chair?’ I hadn’t noticed his name on the back. I jumped up immediately, face burning, apologized, and quickly learned my lesson. On set, a chair isn’t just a chair — it’s an earned space. Never sit in another actor’s chair. My good friend and college buddy, Jace Alexander, was kind enough to offer me the part of Diane Colson in the episode ‘Working Mom,’ five years later. It was the first time I didn’t have to audition for a part, and that wouldn’t happen again for another nine years. I remember acting with the great Sam Waterston and his look to me was so direct and so open, it left me speechless, I went up on my lines. I still aspire to that level of truth. I remember Jerry Orbach. Iconic, charming and full of life explaining to us, in great detail, the wonderful dinner his adoring wife would make him that night, he couldn’t wait to get home to her.”

Amanda Peet

Law & Order (1995)

“Hot Pursuit”

“I had auditioned for Law & Order multiple times so I think it was one of those things where my previous attempts tipped this in my favor. I don’t remember the particular audition but I remember actors lining the hallway at Lynn Kressel whispering lines to themselves like crazy people in an asylum. I don’t remember if I read with Marcia DeBonis for the one I booked but she’s a brilliant actress and it was rare to have someone reading with you who was that good. She also really cared which was rare. A lot of casting folks were snobs about who had chops and who didn’t and if you shat the bed once you were written off for good. They gave me a lot of chances to get less nervous and get better at auditioning and I can’t say that about too many people back then. My friend from college threw a little pizza party at her apartment on 16th street when it aired. I remember feeling like, welp, now I’m famous and will probably be mobbed by fans on the street. It was so inflated in my mind.”

Eric McCormack

Law & Order (2009)

“Sugar”

“Here’s a spoiler alert: He didn’t kill his mistress, but he took the fall for the real killer — his daughter. And instead of gratitude, she picks up scissors, in the last 30 seconds of the show, and stabs him in the neck! Everybody in the police station needed their own amazed reaction shots, so I ended up lying on the floor in a pool of blood for hours as they moved cameras … I flew home to my family, so excited to show my 12-year-old son these cool shots of dad lying on the ground with scissors in his neck. My wife took one look at the photos and said, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ So he never saw them.”

Shawn Hatosy

Law & Order (1996), Law & Order: CI (2009), Law & Order: LA (2011), Law & Order: SVU (2012), Law & Order (2023)

“When I moved to New York in 1996, I was with a great manager Bill Treusch. He had a client, Holt McCallany, who was a member of Lone Star Boat Club, a club in New York City with a gym, squash courts, basketball and a pool table. They invited me to join because they were looking to bring in younger members. Jeffrey Wright, Chris Noth and Jerry Orbach were all members and would all play cards. Jerry was an amazing pool shark, one of the best pool players I’ve ever seen. In between auditions, I would go to the club to work on scenes if I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I was there one day playing pool and Jerry came down and watched me play. He gave the best advice and taught me techniques; the sweetest man, I will never forget him. He saw that I was prepping an audition and asked me what it was for. I told him it was for Law & Order, and he didn’t say a word. We played pool together. A couple days later, he came into the club and said, ‘You got the part kid, you did a great job.’ It was such a moment. I was 19, and it was so fantastic to be on that show. My first episode was with Ellen Pompeo as my girlfriend. Throughout the years, it’s been something that keeps coming back to me.”

Sarah Paulson

Law & Order (1994)

“Family Values”

“It was my first time on camera and I didn’t know you could move your head. I didn’t know what the camera could hold of your physical movement. So basically, when I watch this episode, I’m moving like I’ve been in a small car accident. I’m moving from the shoulders. I didn’t know how to move on camera, I didn’t really know what a mark was, I didn’t know there would be a microphone over my head, I didn’t know I’d have a body wire. There were all of these firsts. The second time was different for me because I was having a bit of a lull in my career. When I got a call asking me to come back, I had worked some so they were willing to pay me a little bit more than the first go-around. It was a real life line. And working with Mariska Hargitay! She’s probably one of the funniest women on the planet. Amy Redford directed the episode and there was a moment when she had to say, ‘I actually need you guys to pull it together.’ Mariska called me Narrowina because I have the longest face known to man. I call her Moon Pie because she’s got a big, round, beautiful face. Sometimes we email each other and she writes, ‘Hey Narrowina,’ and I say, ‘Hey, Moonie.’ It was a really wonderful experience. I long for a Mariska Hargitay comedy.”

Patrick Ball

Law & Order (2023)

“Almost Famous”

“It was my first TV job, and it was great. I played Jason Wheeler, a pimp who runs a content house for social media creators. One of the creators goes off and gets into trouble, and somehow Jason Wheeler ends up going to jail. It was amazing experience. Law & Order is such an amazingly well-oiled machine, and it was really cool stepping into that machine and realizing that you are part of a much larger whole. It very much prepared me for stepping onto a John Wells set.”

Erika Alexander

Law & Order (1990), Law & Order: SVU (2004)

“Poison Ivy,” “Ritual”

“It was one of the first jobs I got after I had done my first movie and was pulled into the business when I was 14. I got to play Doris, a prostitute, and it was very consequential because Law & Order was where everyone was at the time. I recognized people from theater and television. At that time, television was breaking the most boundaries. Later on, while doing an off-Broadway play at the Public, I got a call for a part on SVU with Mariska playing an African diplomat, Kema Mabuda, who was trying to stop a child trafficking ring. On set, I took a beautiful picture of Ice-T with those dimples and he smiled for me and he wasn’t known for smiling, especially then. But we got to know each other, and warmed up to each other. I love Law and Order. It is a rite of passage.”

Peter Facinelli

Law & Order (1995)

“Performance”

“It was my first real role and I was going to be filming for 10 days, so I had to miss two weeks of school at NYU’s Tisch program. I figured I would catch up when I wrapped because I couldn’t pass on the opportunity. I played Shane Sutter, the leader of a ‘high school points for sex club’ which was created by my character and his friends. They would have sex with other high school girls and keep a tally. He went too far and wound up being charged with rape. It was a story ripped from the headlines based on a similar thing happening in high schools. It was a profound episode, and dealt with a poignant subject that we still deal with today. My character was rightfully convicted. Dick Wolf came to set to visit one day. He told me he liked my performance in the dailies and asked what I wanted to do. ‘Act,’ I told him. He smiled and said, ‘Yeah, I figured that. What kind of stuff?’ I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Anything.’ He had another series on air, The Wright Verdicts starring Tom Conti, and he told me there was a guest lead I’d be right for. He asked me to audition. I did, and booked that too. I was going to miss another 10 days of school so I took the semester off. I was 15 credits shy of graduating and I never went back. Law and Order started my career. I can honestly say I don’t know where I’d be if Dick Wolf didn’t launch my career.”

Henry Winkler

Law & Order: SVU (2002)

“Greed”

“I remember that the role was an incredibly intense villain, and I remember working closely with the director on modulating my character’s anger. We were shooting all night on the streets of New York — on the Eastside in the 20s — and at the break I took Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni to dinner. Delicious meal and warm conversation.”

John Stamos

Law & Order: SVU (2011)

“Bang”

“The character was so egotistical he wanted to spread his progeny, to have as many of him as possible out there in the world. Playing the character was just one blip, but it was a good blip, and afterwards we used the role as tape to get meetings.”

Zoe Lister-Jones

Law & Order: Trial by Jury “Pattern of Conduct,” (2005); Law & Order: Criminal Intent “Pattern of Conduct,” (2005); Law & Order “Public Service Homicide,” (2006); Law & Order: SVU “Unorthodox,” (2008)

“I like to pride myself in holding the EGOT of the Law & Order franchise. There was one where I was the murderer and then I was murdered. That was an interesting twist for me to play. There was also another one where I played an Orthodox Jew, which was my third Orthodox Jew in one year. I really cornered that market in my young 20s.”

Fred Savage

Law & Order: SVU (2003)

“Futility”

“It was this in-between time where I was trying to figure out my place in show business — and this phone call came out of the blue. And it was exciting because I got to do all these things. I got to be the bad guy. I got to do courtroom scenes. I was murdered at the end, so I got to play dead. There were all these really exciting things I got to do creatively.” 

Abigail Breslin

Law & Order: SVU (2003)

“Birthright”

“I was only 8 years old when I filmed my episode, so at that age I didn’t fully understand how legendary the show was. I’m such a super fan now.”

This story appeared in the May 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.