Everyone In Hollywood Has Appeared on Law & Order: SVU
A fact of every New Yorker’s life: You are not officially a resident until Law & Order: SVU has filmed on your block (I myself was inducted just over a year ago). Another fact: The rite of passage to Hollywood leads almost directly through SVU’s doors. After reminiscing about all of our favorite celebs who’ve appeared on Gilmore Girls—and in honor of SVU’s 16th season premiere tonight—I got to thinking about everyone who’s appeared alongside Benson and Stabler (and Benson and Amaro) over the years. The list is like Taylor Swift’s roster of exes and besties: Long, chock-full of celebrities, and ever-changing. Check it out below!
Kate Mara: The American Horror Story and House of Cards alum played an ultra-competitive gymnast who may be involved in one of her teammate’s murders in the season-two episode “Pixies.”
Hayden Panettiere: The Nashville star appeared twice on the show, first as a a young girl hurting herself for her parent’s attention in season two’s “Abuse,” and second as a teen mean girl/prostitute in the season-six episode “Hooked.”
Sarah Hyland: Before her Modern Family days, she also made two appearances on SVU: First, in 2001 in the season-three premiere “Repression” and later, in 2009, as an OCD, sleep-deprived teen who kills her classmate in season 10’s “Hothouse.”__
Amanda Seyfried: In the season-six episode “Outcry,” Seyfried portrayed a teen who accuses three military cadets of raping her but is really covering up for her stepfather’s boss (the actual rapist).
Brittany Snow: In one of SVU’s more bizarre episodes, pre-Pitch Perfect Snow appeared as teenager Jamie Hoskins, who is placed on trial for murder after killing nine people in a suicide attempt while off her bipolar meds (which she stops taking at the advice of a rock star).
Rooney Mara: Joining sister Kate, Rooney had one of her first gigs on SVU in the season-seven episode “Fat” as a high-schooler sexually assaulted in a revenge attack. If you missed her in the ep, don’t feel bad—she’s hardly recognizable without her Girl With the Dragon Tattoo garb.
Hilary Duff: In one of SVU’s ripped from the headlines episodes, Duff played a Casey Anthony-type character who claims her daughter has been kidnapped (until the episode takes an odd, pro-vaccination turn).
Natasha Lyonne: In her SVU appearance, Lyonne sat on the opposite side of the law as a psychiatric-ward patient who helps put her attacker behind bars. (P.S. We’ve also seen several of her OITNB castmates on SVU over the years, including Pablo Scheiber, Taryn Manning, and Laverne Cox!)
__This list makes me want to curl up on my couch with an SVU marathon, stat. And since we’ve just barely cracked the surface of all the guest appearances, I want to know—who have been your favorite cameos over the past 15 years?
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