50 Fun Facts About Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Which pop star named her Scottish Fold cat Olivia Benson after the lead detective on SVU?

Taylor Swift got the kitten in June 2014, and her other cats are named after fictional characters too. Olivia the cat has since appeared in her music videos and in commercials.

Which actress has played SVU's Olivia Benson since 1999, winning an Emmy for the role in 2006?

Mariska Hargitay was the first regular cast member of any Law & Order series to win an Emmy. She was nominated for the lead actress prize eight years in a row from 2004.

Which 1950s Hollywood sex symbol was the mother of the actress who plays SVU's Olivia Benson?

Jayne Mansfield died in a 1967 car crash while her three-year-old daughter, asleep in the back with two brothers, escaped with minor injuries. The crash left the future SVU star with a zig-zag scar on her head.

Which rapper joined SVU in its second season as former undercover detective Fin Tutuola?

Ice-T made his debut in the season two premiere, Wrong Is Right. Fin starts out on rocky terms with his colleagues and takes nearly a year to open up to partner John Munch.

Which comedian played a police-impersonating audio engineer in SVU's 200th episode, Authority?

Robin Williams got the part after a friend in the SVU cast told producers he wanted to appear. The writers developed the story only once they knew he was available.

Which US vice president appeared as himself on SVU to discuss the backlog of untested rape kits?

Joe Biden filmed the cameo for the 2016 episode Making a Rapist while still in office. He appears in the cold open, before the titles roll.

SVU's 21st season broke a 20-season record for live-action primetime shows set by which Western?

Gunsmoke ran from 1955 to 1975, and its mark stood for 44 years until SVU's season premiere in September 2019.

Which actor played SVU's Elliot Stabler for 12 seasons, at first while also starring in HBO's Oz?

Christopher Meloni left in 2011 when he could not agree a new contract, so Stabler retired off-screen. He returned to the role a decade later.

Which former heavyweight champion sparked protests when SVU cast him as a death-row inmate?

Mike Tyson's own 1992 rape conviction drove the backlash from fans and survivors of assault. He played a murderer who had been abused as a child, in the episode Monster's Legacy.

Which producer created SVU in 1999 as the first spin-off of his own hit drama Law & Order?

Dick Wolf insisted on keeping Law & Order in the title, although producers feared that a flop would damage the original show.

Which Law & Order spin-off brought Elliot Stabler back in 2021 after ten years away from SVU?

Organized Crime follows Stabler after a bomb planted in his rental car kills his wife, which drives him to join an NYPD task force hunting her killers.

SVU is set in New York City, but in which neighboring state were its studios until 2010?

New Jersey lost the production when Governor Chris Christie suspended film tax credits to close a budget gap. SVU then moved into the Chelsea Piers studio left empty by the original Law & Order.

Which Sex and the City star won an Emmy for playing a woman faking multiple personalities on SVU?

Cynthia Nixon's 2008 win was the third guest actress Emmy for an SVU role, after Amanda Plummer and Leslie Caron.

What is the name of the orphaned baby boy Olivia Benson fosters and later adopts on SVU?

Noah first comes into Benson's care when a court appoints her his guardian at the end of season 15. She begins formal adoption proceedings a year later.

From which Southern city's police department did Detective Amanda Rollins transfer to SVU in 2011?

Atlanta stays close to Rollins's heart in New York: she keeps the Braves' schedule on her refrigerator door.

Which metal band, co-founded by the rapper who plays SVU's Fin Tutuola, released Cop Killer?

Body Count's song caused such a controversy that its frontman became an icon for free-speech campaigners. Eight years after the band's 1992 debut album, he was playing a police detective on SVU.

Which stand-up comedian played conspiracy-minded detective John Munch for SVU's first 15 seasons?

Richard Belzer had already played Munch for seven seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street, and he took the same character to several other shows.

What is the first name of Elliot Stabler's wife, the mother of his five children on SVU?

Kathy married Stabler when they were both 17. She leaves him for a time, and the couple reconcile once she is pregnant with their fifth child.

What two-word title did SVU carry in development before a studio chief asked for a change?

Sex Crimes worried studio head Barry Diller, so the show took the name of the real NYPD squad that handles such cases instead.

Which captain from the original Law & Order pilot led the SVU squad until retiring in season 15?

Donald Cragen was dropped from Law & Order after three seasons because network executives wanted women in its all-male cast. Actor Dann Florek got his captain back when SVU launched.

Which SVU prosecutor survives a drug cartel's hitman in season five and enters witness protection?

Alexandra Cabot resurfaces a season later to testify against her would-be assassin, then slips straight back into hiding once the trial is over.

Which actress played SVU's Amanda Rollins, four years after guest-starring as a rape victim?

Kelli Giddish made her debut as Rollins in the season 13 premiere, Scorched Earth, as the show rebuilt its squad after losing a lead actor.

Which addiction, shared with her father, puts SVU's Amanda Rollins into a recovery program?

Gambling leaves Rollins owing money to a murder suspect in the season 13 episode Home Invasions. Her captain, a recovering alcoholic, offers to get her into a rehabilitation program.

Which NYPD division did Fin Tutuola leave for SVU after his partner took a bullet meant for him?

Narcotics was where Fin worked undercover. Years later he becomes engaged to Phoebe Baker, a sergeant who was his partner there.

Which numbered Manhattan police station is home to the detectives' squad room in Law & Order: SVU?

16th Precinct is SVU's fictional home, while the detectives of the original Law & Order work out of the 27th.

In which city did John Munch work as a detective on Homicide: Life on the Street before joining SVU?

Baltimore loses Munch after his wife has an affair with a member of his own precinct. In retirement he heads back there, remarried, to run a bar.

Which rapper guest-starred on SVU as Darius Parker, the killer son of Fin Tutuola's ex-wife?

Ludacris's character is acquitted of every charge after airing the family's secrets in court, and both Fin and his son Ken disown him.

Which Hollywood film star joined SVU for four episodes in 2010 as cop-turned-prosecutor Jo Marlowe?

Sharon Stone already had an Emmy for a TV guest role, won for The Practice six years before her SVU arc.

What job does Dr. Melinda Warner, played by Tamara Tunie, hold alongside the SVU detectives?

Medical examiner Warner is nearly killed at work: in the season 11 finale she is held hostage in her own morgue and shot.

Which SVU prosecutor is charged with murder after switching off an infant's life support?

Rafael Barba acts out of regret at having left his own comatose father on life support. He grew up in the Bronx and went to Harvard on a scholarship.

Which detective became Olivia Benson's SVU partner after Elliot Stabler's exit in 2011?

Nick Amaro gets a strained welcome from Benson, who is still missing the partner she worked beside for 12 years.

Which serial rapist kidnaps Olivia Benson at the end of SVU's 14th season?

William Lewis later represents himself at trial, where the jury convicts him of kidnapping but acquits him of attempted rape.

Which first-season SVU detective returns over a decade later as Olivia Benson's boyfriend?

Brian Cassidy was first partnered with John Munch, who treated him like a kid brother and handed out questionable advice on life and women.

Which SVU detective studied law at night school and became an assistant district attorney?

Sonny Carisi spent years irritating the squad's prosecutor with unsolicited courtroom advice before leaving the NYPD for the DA's office in season 21.

Which veteran film star won an Emmy for playing Elliot Stabler's estranged mother Bernadette on SVU?

Ellen Burstyn's 2009 win was one of five guest actress Emmys that SVU performers collected between 2005 and 2010.

Which actor, SVU's defense attorney Trevor Langan, married the show's leading lady in 2004?

Peter Hermann met his future wife on the SVU set, and the couple married in Santa Barbara in August 2004.

Which Tony-winning actor played FBI forensic psychiatrist George Huang on Law & Order: SVU?

BD Wong won his Tony for M. Butterfly. His SVU character speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and later moves to an FBI post in Oklahoma City.

Which 2005 SVU episode, centered on Olivia Benson, won the actress who plays her an Emmy?

911 centers on Benson's long call with a nine-year-old girl who says she is locked in a room, while most of her colleagues doubt the story.

Which series led by Sergeant Hank Voight joined SVU in a crossover hunt for escapee Greg Yates?

Chicago P.D. has shared several cases with the New York squad, including one where a house fire exposed a pedophile ring stretching between the two cities.

In which European capital was Elliot Stabler posted as an NYPD liaison after he quit SVU?

Rome was where Stabler chased terrorists and mobsters after a spell in private security. His partner from those years, Tia Leonetti, later turns up in New York.

Which condition, shared with her grandmother, is SVU's Kathleen Stabler diagnosed with?

Bipolar disorder comes to light only after Kathleen is arrested for breaking and entering, when doctors and her family finally recognize the signs.

Amanda Rollins retires from the NYPD in SVU's 24th season to teach at which New York school?

Fordham hires Rollins as an adjunct professor of criminal behavior, and she turns down an offer of tenure there the following season.

SVU's Fin Tutuola, a detective introduced in season two, has a nickname short for which first name?

Odafin is a Yoruba word meaning the establisher of laws, a title once held by the grandfather of writer Amos Tutuola.

Which composer wrote the SVU theme and created the franchise's famous two-note sound effect?

Mike Post also wrote the themes for The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue.

Which foundation for assault survivors did the actress who plays SVU's Olivia Benson set up in 2004?

Joyful Heart even made it on screen: from season 13, Benson wears a necklace with two pendants that represent the foundation.

Which NYPD bureau employed Captain Ed Tucker, who dates Olivia Benson during SVU's 17th season?

Internal Affairs captain Tucker tries to persuade Benson to retire with him a season later, and she ends the relationship instead.

Whose 1986 killing of Jennifer Levin, the so-called preppie murder, inspired the creation of SVU?

Robert Chambers claimed that Levin died during consensual rough sex. The case first inspired an episode in the opening season of the original Law & Order.

Which undercover cop, briefly in command of SVU, is the father of Rollins's daughter Jesse?

Declan Murphy first meets Rollins while posing as a casino operator, and later returns to New York to infiltrate a trafficking ring.

Which fictional New York college is a recurring location in SVU and its sister Law & Order shows?

Hudson University is modeled on a blend of Columbia and NYU, and a college of the same name appears in DC Comics.

Which SVU prosecutor is censured in season nine for violating due process at a cop's rape trial?

Casey Novak bonds with Elliot Stabler over their shared Catholic faith, and she is rehired by the DA's office once her suspension ends.