Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Magdolna Hargitay is an American actress, philanthropist, producer, and director. She is best known for playing Olivia Benson on the NBC police procedural television drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a role she has portrayed since 1999. Her character is the longest-running in American primetime television drama history. For her portrayal of Benson, Hargitay has earned widespread recognition, winning a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

Hargitay was born on January 23, 1964, in Santa Monica, California, to actress Jayne Mansfield. In 1967, she survived an automobile crash that killed her mother and two other adults. She was subsequently raised Catholic by Mickey Hargitay and his third wife, Ellen Siano. Though raised believing Mickey Hargitay was her biological father, she learned in her twenties that her biological father was Nelson Sardelli, a Brazilian-born performer. Hargitay attended Marymount High School and enrolled as a theater arts major at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1982, leaving before completing her degree. She was crowned Miss Beverly Hills USA in 1982 and trained at the Groundlings Theatre and School.

Hargitay began her acting career with minor roles, appearing in Ronnie Milsap's 1984 music video She Loves My Car and the 1985 horror film Ghoulies. She later secured recurring and main roles on television, including Falcon Crest and In the Heat of the Night in 1988, Tequila and Bonetti in 1992, Can't Hurry Love from 1995 to 1996, Prince Street in 1997, and ER from 1997 to 1998. She also appeared in the film Strawberry Road in 1991 and in the fourth season finale of Seinfeld.

After auditioning alongside Christopher Meloni in 1999, Hargitay was cast as Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, training as a rape crisis advocate for the role. Over her long tenure on the show, she became one of the highest-paid actresses on television. Her achievements include receiving the UCLA TFT Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013, placed next to her mother's star.

Hargitay co-produced the 2017 HBO documentary I Am Evidence, winning a News and Documentary Emmy Award for the film. In 2025, she launched the production company Mighty Entertainment and made her feature film directorial debut with the documentary My Mom Jayne. That same year, she executive produced Nuns vs. The Vatican, and in 2026, it was announced she would make her Broadway debut in Every Brilliant Thing. Hargitay also shared the 2015 MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for her appearance in Taylor Swift's music video for Bad Blood.

In 2004, Hargitay founded the Joyful Heart Foundation to support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and human trafficking. A certified rape counselor and rape survivor herself, she has campaigned for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and worked to raise awareness regarding untested rape kits. In her personal life, Hargitay married actor Peter Hermann in 2004, and the couple has three children.