Angie Harmon

Angela Michelle Harmon is an American actress and model born on August 10, 1972. She initially gained national recognition as a fashion model before transitioning into a career in television and film acting. She is best known for her prominent television roles, including depicting Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael on the NBC crime drama series Law & Order and starring as Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli on the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles.

Harmon was born in the Dallas suburb of Highland Park, Texas. She is the daughter of models Daphne Demar and Lawrence Paul Harmon, a hospital information network executive. Her mother is of Greek descent, while her father has English, Scottish, Welsh, Dutch, German, and Irish ancestry. Harmon attended Highland Park High School until 1990, where she participated as a member of the Highland Belles. Through the genealogy television series Who Do You Think You Are?, she discovered she had a German ancestor who served in George Washington's army during the American Revolutionary War.

Harmon began modeling as a child and won a Seventeen magazine modeling contest at age 15 in 1987. Shortly after, she won a Spectrum Model Search contest and pursued a modeling career throughout the early 1990s. Signed with IMG Models in New York City, she walked as a runway model for designers including Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, and Donna Karan, and appeared on the magazine covers of ELLE, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire. Her acting career began in 1995 after she was discovered on an airplane by David Hasselhoff.

Her early screen roles included starring in the mystery drama series Baywatch Nights from 1995 to 1997, leading the short-lived series C-16: FBI, and appearing in the 1997 feature film Lawn Dogs. From 1998 to 2001, Harmon achieved wider fame playing Abbie Carmichael on Law & Order. During her tenure on the show, she also voiced the character of Barbara Gordon in the animated movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

After departing Law & Order to focus on film work, Harmon appeared in the 2001 movie Good Advice and played a CIA handler in the 2003 film Agent Cody Banks. She subsequently appeared in the 2006 political suspense drama End Game and the Western film Seraphim Falls. Returning to television, she appeared in pilots and short-lived series such as Inconceivable, Secrets of a Small Town, and Women's Murder Club, where she played Lindsay Boxer from 2007 to 2008.

From 2010 to 2016, Harmon co-starred opposite Sasha Alexander in the TNT drama Rizzoli & Isles and directed the show's 100th episode. For her portrayal of Jane Rizzoli, she won a Gracie Allen Award in 2012 and a People's Choice Award in 2015. Harmon has also maintained a long-standing creative association with Lifetime, starring in projects such as Video Voyeur in 2002 and Living Proof in 2008. In June 2021, she signed an exclusive multi-picture development deal with Lifetime, subsequently hosting the documentary series Cellmate Secrets and starring in the movie Buried in Barstow.