NewsPhotosVideosShopKardashiansRoyalsTV Scoop
NewsPhotosVideosShopKardashiansRoyalsTV Scoop

Stars Who Got Their Start on Law & Order

17 photos
Jul 21, 2025 5:11 PM
LINK COPIED!
Pin It
Jennifer Garner, Stars Who Got Their Start on Law & Order
1/17
NBC

Jennifer Garner

The actress played a graduate student who has a romantic encounter with Benjamin Bratt's character in a 1996 episode.


Pin It
2/17
NBC

Adam Driver

Before his breakout role on Girls, Driver appeared on Law & Order's final 2010 season and played a lab technician accused of murdering an escort.


Pin It
3/17
NBC

Julia Roberts

In 1999, while she was dating series star Benjamin Bratt, the actress made a rare TV appearance as a party planner involved in the death of powerful businessman.


Pin It
4/17
NBCU Photo Bank

Sebastian Stan

Nearly 20 years ago, the Pam & Tommy star played a boy abducted and raised by his abuser in 2003.


Pin It
5/17
NBC

Allison Janney

Early in her career, the Oscar winner popped up on Law & Order twice in 1992 and 1994. The first time, she played a character scared to testify about a murder. She returned two years later to portray someone interviewed about the murder of soap opera actress.


Pin It
6/17
NBC

Sam Rockwell

The Oscar winner has portrayed two different characters on seasons two and three, playing a police officer and a member of a family accused of murdering a Chinese-American student respectively.


Pin It
7/17
NBC

Emmy Rossum

Rossum's very first acting gig was on a 1997 episode playing a preteen who was the target of a female circumcision.


Pin It
8/17
NBC

Sarah Paulson

In her very first TV role, the Emmy winner played a teen who claimed that she was having an affair with her murdered mother's new husband in 1994.


Pin It
9/17
NBC

Samuel L. Jackson

The actor appeared in a 1991 episode as the lawyer for a drug dealer accused of rape. Who played the drug dealer? Read on...


Pin It
10/17
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Philip Seymour Hoffman

In his first television role, the future Oscar winner played a drug dealer betrayed by another crook. Samuel L. Jackson is his lawyer.


Pin It
11/17
NBC

Claire Danes

Even before her starring role on My So-Called Life, the actress played a troubled teen in a 1992 episode that also featured future Six Feet Under star Lauren Ambrose.


Pin It
12/17
NBC

Leighton Meester

In a 1999 episode, she plays the daughter of a battered woman who helps detectives Briscoe and Curtis with a case.


Pin It
13/17
NBC

Vera Farmiga

The Up In the Air star had a part in a 1998 episode about a shooting.


Pin It
14/17
NBC

Ellen Pompeo

The Grey's Anatomy actress actually appeared on Law & Order twice, in 1996 and 2000. (Fellow Grey's stars Kate Walsh and Chandra Wilson also got work on the series.)


Pin It
15/17
NBC

Cynthia Nixon

During the show's first season, the actress played a woman who shoots two men in a subway.


Pin It
16/17
NBC

Amanda Peet

In 1995, Peet played a woman involved in a mysterious case.


Pin It
17/17
NBC

Chandra Wilson

Decades before Grey's Anatomy, Wilson played Serena Price for one 1992 episode.


Next Gallery
2025 TV Premiere Dates
About UsSubscribeContact UsFAQCareersClosed CaptioningWatch Full EpisodesSitemapE! International TV ChannelsCustomer Support

Your source for entertainment news, celebrities, celeb news, and ​celebrity gossip. Check out the hottest fashion, photos, movies and TV shows!

Ad ChoicesPrivacy PolicyCA NoticeTerms of Service

© 2025 E! Entertainment Television, LLC A Versant Media Company. All rights reserved.