Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
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50 free Law & Order: Special Victims Unit trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit began in 1999 as a spin-off and went on to become the longest-running live-action series in American primetime history. Its detectives have changed over the decades, but the formula of a hard case, a squad room and a courtroom has kept viewers coming back, and Olivia Benson has become one of the most recognizable characters on television. This quiz covers the whole run. Expect questions on Benson and Elliot Stabler and their long partnership, on Amanda Rollins, Fin Tutuola, John Munch and the prosecutors who try the squad's cases, and on the actors behind them. Others look at celebrated guest stars, landmark episodes, crossovers with sister shows and the way the series is written, scored and filmed. It is written for fans who watch every week and for anyone who has ever lost a weekend to a marathon of reruns. The first questions are the gentlest, the later ones reward devoted viewers, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which pop star named her Scottish Fold cat Olivia Benson after the lead detective on SVU?
Taylor Swift
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.
Q 02Which actress has played SVU's Olivia Benson since 1999, winning an Emmy for the role in 2006?
Mariska Hargitay
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.
Q 03Which 1950s Hollywood sex symbol was the mother of the actress who plays SVU's Olivia Benson?
Jayne Mansfield
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.
Q 04Which rapper joined SVU in its second season as former undercover detective Fin Tutuola?
Ice-T
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.
Q 05Which comedian played a police-impersonating audio engineer in SVU's 200th episode, Authority?
Robin Williams
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.
Q 06Which US vice president appeared as himself on SVU to discuss the backlog of untested rape kits?
Joe Biden
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.
Q 07SVU's 21st season broke a 20-season record for live-action primetime shows set by which Western?
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke ran from 1955 to 1975, and its mark stood for 44 years until SVU's season premiere in September 2019.
Q 08Which actor played SVU's Elliot Stabler for 12 seasons, at first while also starring in HBO's Oz?
Christopher Meloni
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.
Q 09Which former heavyweight champion sparked protests when SVU cast him as a death-row inmate?
Mike Tyson
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.
Q 10Which producer created SVU in 1999 as the first spin-off of his own hit drama Law & Order?
Dick Wolf
Dick Wolf insisted on keeping Law & Order in the title, although producers feared that a flop would damage the original show.
Q 11Which Law & Order spin-off brought Elliot Stabler back in 2021 after ten years away from SVU?
Organized Crime
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.
Q 12SVU is set in New York City, but in which neighboring state were its studios until 2010?
New Jersey
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.
Q 13Which Sex and the City star won an Emmy for playing a woman faking multiple personalities on SVU?
Cynthia Nixon
Q 21Which SVU prosecutor survives a drug cartel's hitman in season five and enters witness protection?
Alexandra Cabot
Alexandra Cabot resurfaces a season later to testify against her would-be assassin, then slips straight back into hiding once the trial is over.
Q 22Which actress played SVU's Amanda Rollins, four years after guest-starring as a rape victim?
Kelli Giddish
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.
Q 23Which addiction, shared with her father, puts SVU's Amanda Rollins into a recovery program?
Gambling
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.
Cynthia Nixon's 2008 win was the third guest actress Emmy for an SVU role, after Amanda Plummer and Leslie Caron.
Q 14What is the name of the orphaned baby boy Olivia Benson fosters and later adopts on SVU?
Noah
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.
Q 15From which Southern city's police department did Detective Amanda Rollins transfer to SVU in 2011?
Atlanta
Atlanta stays close to Rollins's heart in New York: she keeps the Braves' schedule on her refrigerator door.
Q 16Which metal band, co-founded by the rapper who plays SVU's Fin Tutuola, released Cop Killer?
Body Count
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.
Q 17Which stand-up comedian played conspiracy-minded detective John Munch for SVU's first 15 seasons?
Richard Belzer
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.
Q 18What is the first name of Elliot Stabler's wife, the mother of his five children on SVU?
Kathy
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.
Q 19What two-word title did SVU carry in development before a studio chief asked for a change?
Sex Crimes
Sex Crimes worried studio head Barry Diller, so the show took the name of the real NYPD squad that handles such cases instead.
Q 20Which captain from the original Law & Order pilot led the SVU squad until retiring in season 15?
Donald Cragen
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.
Q 24Which NYPD division did Fin Tutuola leave for SVU after his partner took a bullet meant for him?
Narcotics
Narcotics was where Fin worked undercover. Years later he becomes engaged to Phoebe Baker, a sergeant who was his partner there.
Q 25Which numbered Manhattan police station is home to the detectives' squad room in Law & Order: SVU?
16th Precinct
16th Precinct is SVU's fictional home, while the detectives of the original Law & Order work out of the 27th.
Q 26In which city did John Munch work as a detective on Homicide: Life on the Street before joining SVU?
Baltimore
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.
Q 27Which rapper guest-starred on SVU as Darius Parker, the killer son of Fin Tutuola's ex-wife?
Ludacris
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.
Q 28Which Hollywood film star joined SVU for four episodes in 2010 as cop-turned-prosecutor Jo Marlowe?
Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone already had an Emmy for a TV guest role, won for The Practice six years before her SVU arc.
Q 29What job does Dr. Melinda Warner, played by Tamara Tunie, hold alongside the SVU detectives?
Medical examiner
Medical examiner Warner is nearly killed at work: in the season 11 finale she is held hostage in her own morgue and shot.
Q 30Which SVU prosecutor is charged with murder after switching off an infant's life support?
Rafael Barba
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.