13 Famous Actors You Forgot Guest Starred on 'Law and Order: SVU'
Before they became feature film stars, they were unfamiliar faces on television's favorite crime drama.
For 22 seasons, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has solidified its place on air with its thrilling crime investigations, its dramatic plot twists, and its infamous detectives. SVU fans know that the NYPD crime drama is not only packed with action but also with A-list guest stars. Each episode of the show gives a unique platform for fresh-faced aspiring actors—for many, this was their first real role before becoming the faces of Hollywood we know today.
At some point or another in their career, pretty much every actor has been on SVU. Some episodes even featured celebrity acting debuts, like when Serena Williams played a victim of a sex crime, or when Questlove made a cameo as a deceased man on season 16 of the show (after telling Us Weekly in 2013 the cold role was a fantasy of his).
Just as fan-favorite Christopher Meloni returns to the Law and Order universe—starring in a special SVU and Organized Crime crossover that sees his character Elliot Stabler reuinte with Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson—we're reminded of these memorable moments.
Here, L’OFFICIEL looks back on 13 actors who made a splash as guest stars on the crime drama before, and some during, their current super stardom.
Hayden Panettiere
The Nashville and Heroes actress appeared on the crime show not once, but twice in two separate seasons, once as a child actor on season two and later as a teen on season six.
Bradley Cooper
Before Cooper became one of the biggest names in Hollywood as an actor and director, he played an attorney defending a client accused of multiple rapes on season six of SVU.
Amanda Seyfried
Seyfried appeared in a season six episode as a teenage girl who is suspected to be lying about her sexual assault.
Timothée Chalamet
Before Call Me By Your Name made Chalamet the Internet’s favorite heartthrob, he was character Eric Foley during season 19 of SVU. At just 13 years old, the role was his first real acting job, which he talked about with Ellen DeGeneres in 2019 when she found an old clip from the show.
Cynthia Nixon
A few years after the finale of Sex and the City, Nixon took on an entirely different role. She opened season nine of SVU as a mother accused of abusing her daughter who turns out to be faking Dissociative Identity Disorder to cover up a murder. Her impressive acting in the show won Nixon an Emmy award.
Milo Ventimiglia
While he was everybody's favorite bad boy Jess on Gilmore Girls, before his recent rise to stardom with the hit series This Is Us, Milo Ventimiglia guest starred in a particular plot twist episode of SVU's season five.
Sarah Hyland
Before Modern Family, Hyland appeared on SVU twice: once as a child victim in season three's episode "Repression," and once as a less innocent private school student suffering a psychotic breakdown that leads to the murder of her roommate in season 10.
Chloë Sevingy
The actress starred as a woman whose alleged kidnap doesn't seem as straightforward after it's exposed that she was having an affair while her husband was overseas in a season 13 epsiode.
Elizabeth Banks
On season three of SVU, Banks stars in an episode of twists and turns as a mother who started a career in porn to pay for her daughter’s medical bills.
Alec Baldwin
The Emmy-winning actor assumed the role of a controversial newspaper columnist that complicated the Special Victim's Unit's investigation in season 15.
Zoë Saldana
The Star Trek, Avatar, and Guardians of the Galaxy actress starred in SVU as the daughter of a heroin addict who is wrongfully accused of murder.
Hillary Duff
On season 10 of SVU, Hillary Duff ventured far from her well-known Lizzie McGuire role to play young and irresponsible mother Ashlee Walker.
Adam Driver
Before Girls, Star Wars, or the upcoming Gucci drama, a relatively-unknown Adam Driver appeared as a guy caught installing webcams into a girl's apartment in a season 13 episode.
