Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

***Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*** (often abbreviated to ***Law & Order: SVU*** or just ***SVU***) is an American crime drama television series created by Dick Wolf and is the first and longest running spinoff of *Law & Order. SVU* focuses on a group of fictional police officers working in the titular Special Victims Unit in New York City. The crimes the *SVU* squad handle involve sex-related crimes such as sexual assault, domestic abuse or cases involving children.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler (Seasons 1 - 12; Recurring Seasons 22 - Present)
* Mariska Hargitay as Detective/Sergeant/Lieutenant/Captain Olivia Benson (Seasons 1 - Present)
* Richard Belzer as Detective/Sergeant John Munch (Seasons 1 - 15; Guest Season 17)
* Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen (Seasons 1 - 15; Guest Seasons 16 & 23)
* Michelle Hurd as Detective Monique Jeffries (Seasons 1 - 2)
* Stephanie March as ADA Alex Cabot (Seasons 2 - 5 & 11; Recurring Seasons 10 & 13; Guest Seasons 6 & 19)
* Ice-T as Detective/Sergeant Odafin "Fin" Tutuola (Seasons 2 - Present)
* BD Wong as FBI Psychiatrist Dr. George Huang (Seasons 4 - 12; Recurring Seasons 2 - 3; Guest Seasons 13 - 15 & 17)
* Diane Neal as ADA Casey Novak (Seasons 5 - 9; Recurring Season 13; Guest Season 12)
* Tamara Tunie as ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Seasons 7 - 12; Recurring Seasons 2 - 6 & 13 - 17; Guest Seasons 19 & 21 - 23)
* Adam Beach as Detective Chester Lake (Season 9; Recurring Season 8)
* Michaela McManus as ADA Kim Greylek (Season 10)
* Danny Pino as Detective Nick Amaro (Seasons 13 - 16; Guest Season 23)
* Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins (Seasons 13 - 24)
* Raúl Esparza as ADA Rafael Barba (Seasons 15 - 19; Recurring Season 14; Guest Seasons 21 - 23)
* Peter Scanavino as Detective/ADA Dominick "Sonny" Carisi (Seasons 16 - Present)
* Phillip Winchester as ADA Peter Stone (Seasons 19 - 20)
* Jamie Gray Hyder as Officer/Detective Katriona "Kat" Tamin (Seasons 21 - 23)
* Demore Barnes as Chief Christian Garland (Seasons 22 - 23; Recurring Season 21)
* Octavio Pisano as Detective Joe Velasco (Seasons 23 - Present)
* Molly Burnett as Detective Grace Muncy (Season 24 - Present)

### Notable Recurring Cast

* Dean Winters as Detective Brian Cassidy (Seasons 1, 13 - 15 & 19 - 20)
* Chris Orbach as Detective Ken Briscoe (Season 1)
* Joel de la Fuente as TARU Tech Ruben Morales (Seasons 3 - 12)
* Robert John Burke as Sergeant/Lieutenant/Captain Ed Tucker (Seasons 3 - 5, 8 - 12, 14 - 18 & 21)
* Connie Nielsen as Detective Dani Beck (Season 8)
* Peter Gallagher as Chief William Dodds (Seasons 16 - 21)
* Andy Karl as Sergeant Mike Dodds (Season 17)
* Terry Serpico as Chief Tommy McGrath (Seasons 22 - Present)

## Spinoffs & Adaptations

### Television Series

* *Law & Order: Organized Crime* (2021 - Present)

### Foreign Adaptations

* *Law & Order: Department of Operational Investigations* (2007 - 2011)

## Connections

### On *SVU*

* *Law & Order* (1999 - Present)
	+ *SVU* is a direct spinoff of *Law & Order* and has always shared ties with the original series, most notably Dann Florek returning to his role as Captain Donald Cragen. Other characters from *Law & Order* have made a multitude of appearances over the course of *SVU*, but there are only 5 official crossover episodes of *SVU* with *Law & Order* ("Or Just Looks Like One", "Entitled (Part 1)", "Design", "The Undiscovered Country", and "Gimme Shelter (Part 2)"). Of note, "Design" did not have any *Law & Order* characters appear, but the storyline was continued in a *Law & Order* episode aired later in the week.
* *Law & Order: Trial by Jury* (2005)
	+ The Season 6 episode "Night" featured appearances from ADA Tracey Kibre (Bebe Neuwirth), DA Investigator Hector Salazar (Kirk Acevedo) and DA Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson) from *Trial by Jury.* The storyline was concluded on a *Trial by Jury* episode that aired later that evening.
* *Homicide: Life on the Street* (2009 - 2013)
	+ Aside from the presence of John Munch for the first 15 seasons, *SVU* has had two episodes where other *Homicide* characters appear. The Season 10 finale "Zebras" has Munch's ex-wife Gwen (Carol Kane) appear. Gwen returns in Season 15's "Wonderland Story" along with another of Munch's ex-wives Billie Lou Hatfield (Ellen McElduff) and his former coworker Detective Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson).
* *Law & Order: LA* (2010 - 2014)
	+ Both "Behave" and "Reparations" from Season 12 feature appearances from *LA* characters (Detective Rex Winters (Skeet Ulrich) and Deputy DA Joe Dekker (Terence Howard) respectively). Season 15's "Jersey Breakdown" features an appearance from former *LA* DDA Connie Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza).
* *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2012 - 2021)
	+ Despite running concurrently for 10 years, *SVU* did not have any crossovers with *Criminal Intent* until after the later had already finished its run. Season 14's "Acceptable Loss" and "Poisoned Motive" feature appearances from Lieutenant Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe), while Season 22's "Hunt, Trap, Rape and Release" has an appearance from former Major Case Squad Detective turned Bronx SVU Lieutenant Carolyn Barek (Anabella Sciorra).
* *Chicago P.D.* (2014 - 2016)
	+ *Chicago P.D.* crossed over with *SVU* 4 times in the span of three seasons ("Comic Perversion", "Chicago Crossover", "Daydream Believer" and "Nationwide Manhunt").
* *Chicago Fire* (2014 - 2015)
	+ While no *Chicago Fire* characters appeared on *SVU* during the Season 16 crossover episodes "Chicago Crossover" and "Daydream Believer", the storylines in those episodes began on *Chicago Fire*.
* *Chicago Justice* (2018 - 2019)
	+ First appearing in Season 19's "The Undiscovered Country", ADA Peter Stone (Phillip Winchester) of *Chicago Justice* joins the *SVU* team after the cancellation of *Chicago Justice* for 36 episodes. In the Season 20 episode "Zero Tolerance", Chicago State Attorney Mark Jefferies (Carl Weathers) appears.
* *Law & Order: Organized Crime* (2021 - Present)
	+ *Organized Crime* has been closely tied with its parent series, having had 7 crossover episodes on *SVU,* including the return of Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) in Season 22's "Return of the Prodigal Son". The other crossover episodes are "Trick-Rolled at the Moulin" from Season 22, "I Thought You Were On My Side", "Fast Times @TheWheelHouse", "People vs. Richard Wheatley" and "Did You Believe in Miracles from Season 23, and the Season 24 premiere "Gimme Shelter (Part 2)".

### In Other Media

* *Law & Order* (2000 - Present)
	+ *SVU* characters have appeared in 5 official crossovers with *Law & Order* ("Entitled", "Fools for Love", "Flaw", "Black and Blue" and "Gimme Shelter (Part 3)").
* *Law & Order: Trial by Jury* (2005)
	+ While the episode "Skeleton" is officially considered a crossover with the original *Law & Order*, Richard Belzer appears in that episode as John Munch, thereby also making it an *SVU* crossover. More of the *SVU* squad cross over to *Trial By Jury* in the episode "Day".
* *Conviction* (2006)
	+ The short lived series starred Stephanie March as ADA Alexandra Cabot, a role she originated on *SVU.*
* *Chicago P.D.* (2014 - 2016)
	+ A number of *SVU* characters travelled to Chicago and appeared in 4 *Chicago P.D.* episodes ("Conventions", "They'll Have to Go Through Me", "The Number of Rats", "The Song of William Gregory Yates").
* *Chicago Fire* (2014 - 2015)
	+ Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) appears in the season 3 episode "Nobody Touches Anything". Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie) appear in "We Called Her Jellybean", also from season 3.
* *Law & Order: Organized Crime* (2021 - Present)
	+ The series stars Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, a role he originated on *SVU*. As well, other *SVU* characters have appeared in 13 episodes across the 3 seasons of the show.

### Other Allusions

* *Deadline* (1999 - Present)
	+ *Deadline* focuses on the staff of the *New York Ledger*, a newspaper seen in various episodes of *SVU*.
* *Luther* (2010)
	+ In "Episode 5" of season 1, Detective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba) mentions an NYPD SVU contact by the name of John Munch.