Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay (born January 23, 1964, Santa Monica, California, U.S.) is an American actor best known for conveying empathy, warmth, and passion in her role as the police detective and, eventually, captain Olivia Benson in the long-running TV show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, or SVU (1999– ). As Benson, she led investigations into sex crimes, child victimization, and domestic violence.

Early life and career

Hargitay is the daughter of actor and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. For years Hargitay believed that her biological father was Mansfield’s second husband, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. However, as an adult she discovered that Italian-born entertainer Nelson Sardelli was her biological father. Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay divorced shortly after Mariska was born. She was three years old when her mother was killed in a car crash; she and her two brothers were in the back seat. She was raised by Mickey Hargitay and his third wife, Ellen Siano, and grew up in Los Angeles.

Hargitay began acting while she was in high school. She also competed in beauty pageants. She enrolled in the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of California, and she studied improv with the Groundlings comedy troupe in Los Angeles. Her acting career began in 1984, when she appeared in a music video for country musician Ronnie Milsap and also had a small role in the horror film Ghoulies.

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TV roles

Hargitay costarred in the teen movies Welcome to 18 and Jocks (both 1986), but she found her true calling as a television actor when she was cast in a lead role in the short-lived series Downtown (1986–87), about a group of crime-solving parolees. In 1988 she played guest roles in the series In the Heat of the Night and Freddie’s Nightmares and joined the cast of the prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest for a season. She continued making guest appearances in TV shows, including Baywatch, Wiseguy, thirtysomething, and Booker, until she was again cast in a lead role, in the detective series Tequila and Bonetti (1992), which again proved short-lived. Hargitay costarred in yet another single-season show, the comedy Can’t Hurry Love, in 1995–96, and in 1997–98 she played a recurring role as a desk clerk in the series ER.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Finally, in 1999, Hargitay found her most successful role when she was chosen to play a detective in the Law & Order spin-off known as SVU. Except for a period of maternity leave in 2006 and a brief absence in 2009 as a result of an injury incurred during a stunt, Hargitay portrayed Benson in every episode, setting a record for the longest tenure of a single character portrayed by the same actor in a TV series. She also played Benson in various episodes of Chicago P.D., Law & Order, and Law & Order: Organized Crime. From 2004 to 2011 Hargitay was nominated each year for an Emmy Award for best lead actress, winning the award in 2006.

Hargitay occasionally took on other roles. Notably, in 2026 she made her Broadway debut, appearing in Every Brilliant Thing. That year she also hosted the Emmy Awards ceremony.

Activism and personal life

The character of Benson is an empathetic advocate for victims of rape, domestic abuse, and child abuse, and Hargitay began receiving letters and e-mails from women who had experienced such crimes and were seeking a sympathetic ear and comfort. In response, Hargitay became a rape crisis counselor and then in 2004 founded the Joyful Heart Foundation to help survivors of sexual assault find healing. In 2012 she lobbied for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, penning op-eds and appearing with then Vice Pres. Joe Biden in a series of public service announcements. Through her foundation she works to raise awareness and change practices around the backlog of rape kits in police evidence units throughout the country, and as part of that effort she produced the documentary film I Am Evidence (2017).

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In 2004 Hargitay married actor Peter Hermann, who played a recurring role on SVU. The couple had a son in 2006 and adopted both a baby girl and a baby boy in 2011.

In early 2025 Hargitay announced that she was directing a documentary about her mother, My Mom Jayne. It premiered on HBO in June. While promoting the film, she publicly discussed her paternity, revealing to Vanity Fair that she had been conceived while her mother was separated from Mickey Hargitay in 1963, and they had briefly reconciled before her birth. “I grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me,” she told Vanity Fair. “I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter—that is not a lie.” My Mom Jayne received positive reviews, and in 2026 Hargitay won Emmy Awards for outstanding documentary and directing.