List of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit characters

File:Law & Order- SVU - Season 11 Cast.png

The cast of the eleventh season (2009-2010). From left to right: Stephanie March, B.D. Wong, Tamara Tunie, Christopher Meloni, Mariska Hargitay, Dann Florek, Richard Belzer and Ice-T.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a spin-off of the crime drama Law & Order, follows the detectives who work in the "Special Victims Unit" of the 16th District New York City Police Department's, a unit that focuses on crimes involving rape, sexual assault and child molestation, as well as any crime loosely connected with any of the three, such as domestic violence, kidnapping and child abandonment. Since its debut in September 1999, the series has generally shown four detectives working the unit, though at times, five, under the leadership of Captain Don Cragen. The unit also has a prosecutor assigned from the DA's office, and frequently interacts with specific medical examiners and the unit's psychiatrist George Huang.

Two of the regular characters have appeared in two other NBC series: Captain Don Cragen (Florek), who was on the first three seasons of Law & Order and Sergeant John Munch (Belzer), formerly a Baltimore detective on Homicide: Life on the Street. This character also made appearances on Law & Order, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Arrested Development, The Beat, The X-Files and the HBO series The Wire.

Creation and conception

The characters of Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler were named for creator Dick Wolf's children. Wolf's third child, daughter Sarina, had a character named for her, Benson's mother was named Serena, as well as former ADA Serena Southerlyn on the original Law and Order.

Main characters

Season	Senior Detective	Junior Detective	Sergeant	Senior Detective	Junior Detective	Junior Detective	Captain	Psychiatrist	Medical Examiner	Assistant District Attorney
1	Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni)	Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay)	Vacant	John Munch (Richard Belzer)	Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters)*	Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd)	Don Cragen (Dann Florek)	Dr. Emil Skoda (J.K. Simmons)*	Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers (Leslie Hendrix)*	Various
2					Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T)				Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)	Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March)
						Vacant
								Dr. George Huang (B.D. Wong)
3
4
5										Casey Novak (Diane Neal)
6
7
8						Dani Beck (Connie Nielsen)*
9			John Munch (Richard Belzer)	Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T)	Chester Lake (Adam Beach)	Vacant
10					Vacant					Kim Greylek (Michaela McManus)
										Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March)*
11										Sonya Paxton (Christine Lahti)*
										Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March)**
TBA (Sharon Stone)*

* Denotes a character who hasn't appeared in opening credits, yet commonly appeared on the show
** Denotes a character who only appeared in the opening credits, when in that episode.

Police

Donald Cragen

Main article: Donald Cragen

• Portrayed by Dann Florek.

Donald Cragen is the Captain of the Special Victims Unit. A former homicide detective, he is portrayed as a somewhat stern but understanding father figure to the detectives who work under him and he gives them a great deal of leniency because he trusts their ability to get results, although he had an early habit of haranguing them about the weaknesses of their investigations. He was an alcoholic for much of his early career, but goes sober after pulling his service revolver on a taxi driver in a drunken rage. He has remained sober since, even after the death of his wife in a plane crash. Florek originally portrayed the character from 1990 to 1993 in the original Law & Order series. In that series, Cragen was investigated by internal affairs for corruption. During the investigation to prove his innocence, he discovered that he was being framed by his former captain and mentor, whom he turns in. He has maintained bitter relations with the police bureaucracy ever since. He is later transferred out of the Anti-Corruption Task Force before transferring to the newly formed Special Victims Unit.

John Munch

Main article: John Munch

• Portrayed by Richard Belzer.

John Munch was a detective and now a Seargent, in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. A conspiracy theorist, but dedicated detective Munch is first partnered with Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters), whom he thinks of as a kind of younger brother, alternately poking fun at him and imparting (often questionable) advice on life and women. When Cassidy leaves the precinct in 2000, Munch is briefly partnered with Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd), and then with Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T). He and the gruff, uncompromising Tutuola get off to a rough start, but gradually came to like and respect each other.

The character was first created for the NBC police drama Homicide: Life on the Street, where he worked as a homicide detective with the Baltimore Police Department. The character was based on Jay Landsman, a central figure in David Simon's true crime book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, a documentary account of the homicide unit's operation over one year. After the series cancellation in 1999, the character was transferred to Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, having appeared within the original Law & Order in cross-over episodes. Within the series, it is eventually said he left Baltimore after his wife cheated on him with a friend. Munch has been the only fictional character played by a single actor to appear on seven different television shows: Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The X-Files, Arrested Development, The Beat and The Wire. If Belzer continues the role through the fourteenth season of SVU, he will claim the title of longest running character in television history.

Elliot Stabler

Main article: Elliot Stabler

• Portrayed by Christopher Meloni.

Elliot Stabler is a detective in Manhattan's 16th Precinct, also known as the Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes. A former Marine and a dedicated detective, he has a 97 percent closure rate, but his dedication can turn to obsession and cause him to take cases personally. At the start of the series he is married with four children. He separates from his wife Kathy during the series, and she files for divorce, but they reconcile after she becomes pregnant with his fifth child. He is a devout Catholic whose faith sometimes complicates the cases he works on. His partner is Olivia Benson, with whom he generally has a good working relationship, but it is not without tension and friction.

Olivia Benson

Main article: Olivia Benson

• Portrayed by Mariska Hargitay.

Olivia Benson is a detective in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes and abuse. She is primarily partnered with Elliot Stabler. She is tough, empathetic, and completely dedicated to her job, to the point that she is seen as having no personal life. Her dedication sometimes wreaks havoc on her emotional state as she empathizes with victims of sexual assault, having been the child of rape and later the near victim of sexual assault while undercover. She has allowed her compassion for victims of abuse to sometimes cloud her professional judgment and impede her ability to remain impartial. Hargitay has received both a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Benson. Olivia is a kind hearted person who would put her life on the line for any of her friends or family. In one of the episodes it is told that she has a brother who then shoots a cop for framing him and Olivia and Stabler don't really seem the same after they are standing there when Alex gets shot and they take her supposed death very hard along with the rest of the unit (Alex's death is faked).

Brian Cassidy

• Portrayed by Dean Winters.

Brian Cassidy was a detective in the SVU during the series's first season. The youngest and most inexperienced member of the precinct, he has a genuine desire to put rapists and child molesters in prison, but lacked the professional detachment necessary to deal with the often grisly sex crimes. He often has trouble concealing his anger and revulsion toward the cases he investigates and this created friction between him and his colleagues, made worse when they poke fun at his relative lack of sophistication. A genuinely talented and driven police detective, he makes a real effort to learn from the other members of the precinct, particularly Munch, whom he thinks of as a sort of older brother/mentor figure. He has a brief affair with Olivia Benson, and has trouble dealing with her after the relationship ends. Cassidy was written out of the show midway through the first season after Cragen shows him a videotape of an interview with a young girl who was repeatedly raped and brutalized, causing Cassidy to realize that he cannot emotionally handle the types of crimes that a SVU detective must deal with on a daily basis. Cragen then offers to assist Cassidy with a transfer to another department, narcotics.

Monique Jeffries

• Portrayed by Michelle Hurd.

Monique Jeffries was a police detective with Manhattan's 16th Precinct, which investigates sex crimes, and one of the initial detectives in the SVU unit. Earlier in the series, she is partnered with various detectives, including Brian Cassidy. Initially, she is only seen at headquarters, doing research and showing up in court for various cases to represent the department. After Cassidy's departure near the end of the first season, she partners with Munch and begins going actively on investigations. Shortly after this, she is physically and emotionally shaken when a car explodes while she is pursuing a fleeing suspect. Survival of the incident leaves her feeling "restless", and she has a one night stand with a man she recognized as a suspect in a previous sexual assault case the unit had investigated. After she confesses this to a department psychiatrist, who is working for a commission investigating problems in various police units, she is taken off active duty and ordered to receive treatment. Captain Don Cragen, feeling she has become "reckless" and "a danger" to herself supports the decision. Finding desk duty intolerable, she cleans out her desk and leaves her gun and badge on the desk of her new replacement, Fin Tutuola. In the second season, it is revealed that she was eventually reinstated and transferred to the Vice Unit.

Fin Tutuola

Main article: Fin Tutuola

• Portrayed by Ice-T.

Odafin "Fin" Tutuola is a detective in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. He was raised in Harlem and he served in the United States Army, where he saw combat in Mogadishu. A former undercover narcotics detective, Tutuola replaced Monique Jeffries after she left the squad in 2000. He transferred out of narcotics after his partner was shot. He initially has a rocky relationship with his colleagues in SVU, especially his partner John Munch and Olivia Benson. He sees the world in black and white, with all criminals equally deserving of prison regardless of extenuating circumstances. He also keeps a tight rein on his emotions, refusing to talk about his problems or to admit that the grisly nature of his work often affects him. He rarely talks about his personal life, not revealing he has a son to his fellow detectives until the sixth season. As the series progresses, he becomes closer with Munch and saves Benson from being raped. However, he also begins clashing more frequently with fellow detective Elliot Stabler. As of the Season 8 episode "Screwed", he is assigned Chester Lake as his new partner. After Lake kills a suspect, Stabler accuses Tutuola of tipping him off before he is taken into custody, and checks his phone records. Stabler quasi-apologizes for not trusting him, but Tutuola dismisses his apology because he believes Stabler will always be the same "bulldog". Afterwards, he requests a transfer from the squad, however the man in charge of transfers is a former colleague of Tutuola's who holds a grudge against him. Tutuola resolves himself to being "stuck" and his Captain, Don Cragen, orders him to investigate a case with Stabler, who he calls a "headcase" and "cranky-balls". They manage to work together, but remain tense.

Dani Beck

• Portrayed by Connie Nielsen.

Detective Danielle 'Dani' Beck was Detective Olivia Benson's temporary replacement in season 8, while Benson was on an undercover assignment, while her portrayer Mariska Hargitay was on maternity leave. Dani and Elliot Stabler shared a brief relationship. Following a case involving child abuse in which a traumatized adopted girl, whom Beck had been caring for, attempted to burn down her apartment and kill them both, Beck said to Elliot she couldn't stand working in the Special Victims Unit anymore and decided it would be best to leave Special Victims behind, and returned to her old post at the Warrants squad. Hargitay returned to her role as Benson in the following episode.

Chester Lake

• Portrayed by Adam Beach.

Detective Chester Lake transferred to the SVU unit from the Brooklyn Special Victims Unit at the end of the eighth season and was partnered with Detective Fin Tutuola. He is of Native American ancestry, specifically Mohawk, and speaks proudly of his ancestors. He also used to compete as an amateur mixed martial artist under the name "Naptime", but had to quit after tearing his ACL. In the final episode of the ninth season, Lake begins attending meetings of individuals in Philadelphia who share information on "cold" murder cases. He later shoots and kills a fellow police officer, who was suspected of raping two illegal immigrant girls ten years ago, killing one. Lake disappears while his fellow detectives investigate. They are able to prove Lake killed the other cop in self defense after he was shot at himself by a second NYPD officer with a history of brutality. Lake is found, wounded, and taken to the hospital. The second officer, however, is released after the jury deadlocks. The officer is killed the same night and Lake is found standing over the body and makes no denial to his fellow SVU detectives. He is arrested and last seen in the series sitting handcuffed in a police car. It was confirmed on April 18, 2008 that Beach would not be returning to the series to reprise the role in the subsequent season.

Psychiatrist and Medical Examiner

George Huang

Main article: George Huang (Law & Order)

• Portrayed by B.D. Wong.

Dr. Huang is a FBI forensic psychiatrist and criminal profiler, specializing in studying sexual predators and their victims. Huang stated he was homosexual in the season 11 episode titled "Hardwired".

Melinda Warner

Main article: Melinda Warner

• Portrayed by Tamara Tunie.

Dr. Warner is the NYC medical examiner. She has a teenage daughter and served as a doctor in the U.S. Air Force.

ADAs

Alexandra Cabot

Main article: Alexandra Cabot

• Portrayed by Stephanie March.

Cabot is an A.D.A. She survived an assassination attempt by a drug cartel's hitman and then entered the Witness Protection Program. She returned to testify against her assassin and has returned to the D.A.'s office in season 10. She also appeared in the short-lived Law & Order spinoff Conviction. Cabot was absent for the first four episodes of the 11th season to do some training in Albany in order to return to work with the SVU detectives by the fifth episode (Appeals) after EADA Sonya Paxton entered court-ordered alcohol rehab.

Casey Novak

Main article: Casey Novak

• Portrayed by Diane Neal.

Casey Novak was a Assistant District Attorney who replaced Alex Cabot. Although she quickly loses her innocence when dealing with sex crimes, she still shows uneasiness when dealing with the gray areas of human involvement, preferring the letter of the law to the messiness of each individual reality. Nonetheless, Novak has a 71 percent success rate in the cases she prosecutes, whereas the average for prosecutors is 44 percent. It is revealed that in her final year of law school, Novak was engaged to a man, Charlie, who suffered from schizophrenia. She ended the relationship when his symptoms became so severe she felt she could no longer be intimate with him. In 2002 Charlie attacked her in her home during a psychotic episode. She convinced the police not to press charges, but ended the relationship. He eventually became homeless, and was found dead as a "John Doe" in the spring of 2007. She developed a deep compassion for the mentally ill afterward, but still feels guilty for not being able to help him. She states that she is a big supporter of the U.S military. She says that her father was an M60 Door Gunner on a Huey during the Vietnam War. His helicopter crashed three times and he received a Purple Heart. She lives in an apartment in the Upper West Side of New York City. She is Catholic.

Kim Greylek

• Portrayed by Michaela McManus.

Kim Greylek was the SVU's Assistant District Attorney who replaced Casey Novak at the beginning of Season 10 after the latter was disbarred for violating Brady rules. Greylek previously worked in the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women in Washington, D.C. where she had the nickname of "The Crusader." A dogged prosecutor, she pushed the detectives to make cases for the sake of politics in favor of pursuing actual offenders. She can be unrelenting, threatening to charge a defendant with a hate crime for raping two women and of having a teenage boy charged with assaulting a police officer so he can be tested for HIV. After appearing in only 14 episodes, the character was written out of the series as having left the unit to return to Washington. Greylek was replaced by former unit ADA Alexandra Cabot.

Sonya Paxton

• Portrayed by Christine Lahti.

Sonya Paxton was SVU's Executive ADA who temporarily replaced Alexandra Cabot five episodes of the 11th season, starting with the season premiere ("Unstable"). Paxton was sent down by Jack McCoy to 'clean house' in the 'he-said, she-said unit' due to too many convictions being overturned. However things started rocky as she butts heads with the SVU team, particularly Detective Stabler. In the second episode of Season 11 ("Sugar") she and he get into a heated argument after Paxton calls the suspect's lawyer after he declines his right to counsel twice. And in "Hammered" when a man drinks heavily and goes home and murders a woman he met at a bar, the defense blames alcoholism for the murder during the trial. In the middle of the case, Paxton, an alcoholic herself, goes to a neighborhood bar to study over the case while drinking heavily with Benson and Stabler with her, (although they were both sober and Paxton was drinking heavily), after Stabler declines a drink, he leaves Benson with her. Paxton drank even further after Benson left and showed up 45 minutes late to court the next morning appearing distraught, blaming a "fender bender". Judge Moredock asked if she would need medical help, but the defendant pointed out that she was drunk. He ordered Benson to come with a breathalyzer, which revealed her blood alcohol level was .082, resulting in a mistrial. The Judge ordered Paxton to seek treatment, prompting her temporary departure. She later appeared in the episode "Turmoil" meeting Cabot outside the court room telling her to watch out for Benson and Stabler, because they are only loyal to each other.

Supporting characters

• John Schuck - Chief of Detectives (2004-present)
• Fred Dalton Thompson - D.A. Arthur Branch (2002-2007)
• J.K. Simmons - Dr. Emil Skoda (2000-2001)
• Joel de la Fuente - TARU Tech Ruben Morales (2002-present)
• Joselin Reyes - Paramedic Martinez (2003-2007)
• William H. Burns - Officer Robbins (2004-2006)

CSU Technicians

• Caren Browning - Captain Judith Siper (1999-present)
• Welly Yang - Georgie (1999-2003)
• Lou Carbonneau - Harry Martin (2000-2002)
• Daniel Sunjata - Burt Trevor (2000-2004)
• Jordan Gelber - David Layton (2001-2003)
• Mike Doyle - Ryan O'Halloran (2003-2009)
• Noel Fisher - Dale Stuckey (2009)

Judges

• Tom O'Rourke - Mark Seligman (1999-2006)
• Harvey Atkin - Alan Ridenour (2000-2008)
• Joanna Merlin - Lena Petrovsky (2000-present)
• Judith Light - Elizabeth Donnelly (2002-present)
• David Lipman - Arthur Cohen (2002-present)
• John Cullum - Barry Moredock (2003-present) (D.A. 2003-2008; Judge 2008-present)
• Sheila Tousey - Danielle Larsen (2003-2004)
• Audrie J. Neenan - Lois Preston (2003-present)
• Peter McRobbie - Walter Bradley (2003-present)
• Patricia Kalember - Karen Taten (2004-present)

Defense Attorneys

• Ned Eisenberg - Roger Kressler (1999-2008) (Note: Eisenberg's first two appearances were as a similarly-characterized lawyer named Jerry Kleinert, including in the series premiere.)
• Viola Davis - Donna Emmett (2004-present)
• Jill Marie Lawrence - Cleo Conrad (2001-2008)
• CCH Pounder - Carolyn Maddox (2001-present)
• Peter Hermann - Trevor Langan (2002-present)
• David Thornton - Lionel Granger (2003-present)
• Michael Boatman - Dave Seaver (2003-2006)
• Beverly D'Angelo - Rebecca Balthus (2003-2008)
• Peter Riegert - Chauncey Zierko (2004-present)
• Annie Potts - Sophie Devere (2005-present)
• Alex Kingston - Miranda Pond (2008-present)
• Jerri Ryan - Patrice Larue (2009-present)

The Stabler family

• Isabel Gillies - Kathy Stabler (1999-present)
• Erin Broderick - Maureen Stabler (1999-present)
• Holiday Segal - Kathleen Stabler (1999) 6 episodes
• Allison Siko - Kathleen Stabler (2002-present)
• Jeffrey Scaperrotta - Richard "Dickie" Stabler (1999-present)
• Patricia Cook - Elizabeth Stabler (1999-present)

Minor characters

Dr. Rebecca Hendrix

Dr. Rebecca Hendrix, portrayed by Mary Stuart Masterson, is a former police officer who was at the police academy with Detective Benson. She left the force to become a psychiatrist. She appears for three episodes in the series' sixth season, to replace series regular B.D. Wong while he was performing in Broadway's Pacific Overtures." Within the series, it is said that Wong's character George Huang is on special assignment with the FBI back in Washington. Masterson reprises the role in the seventh season episode "Ripped" and in season eight's "Philadelphia." Mike Barry of Anton News stated that Masterson was "best known" for playing the role between 2004 and 2007.

Dean Porter

FBI Agent Dean Porter, portrayed by Vincent Spano, worked with Benson as her handler during her stint undercover in an eco-terrorist group during season 8. He's also worked with the squad on several federal cases. (Savant, Screwed, Florida, Infiltrated, & Spooked.)

Simon Marsden

Simon Marsden (Michael Weston) is Detective Benson's half-brother and caused extensive trouble throughout season 8 for Olivia and the entire squad.

Sgt. Ed Tucker

Ed Tucker (played by Robert John Burke) is a detective in Internal Affairs that usually comes to question the SVU detectives whenever there is an allegation of misconduct. He has been mocked by Stabler every time he's shown up at the the unit; more than the other characters This may be due to his admission to a department psychatrist hat he fantasizes about murdering pedophiles. (SVU: Slaves)

Samantha Copeland

Samantha Copeland appeared as a prosecutor in the SVU episode "Crush". (played by Melinda McGraw)

She is a by the book attorney working Corp. Counsel, though she was previously employed by Judge Hilda Marsden, who sends children who commit petty crimes to a juvenile prison in Ohio. She later placed Olivia Benson and Defense Attorney Miranda Pond in the court lock-up, so Copeland contacts Capt. Cragen and she posts bail. But in the end she helps the Special Victims Unit stage a trial to bust Marsden and sends her to prison.