Mariska Hargitay aka Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American actress, director and philanthropist.
Below are 10 things women should know about this delightful actress:
1. Mariska Hargitay was born on January 23, 1964 at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
2. She’s the daughter of bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay and actress Jayne Mansfield.
3. She was raised Catholic. She has two older brothers, Miklós and Zoltán, and three half-siblings. She Attended the University of California, Los Angeles.
4. Hargitay made her film debut in the 1985 horror comedy film Ghoulies and her major television debut in the 1986 adventure drama series Downtown.
5. She appeared in numerous film and television roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s, before landing the starring role of Olivia Benson on the NBC drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present), for which she has received widespread acclaim.
6. Mariska Hargitay is a Christian. While a student at her Catholic secondary school, Marymount High School, Hargitay was active in cheerleading, student government, athletics, and the theater program.
7. On August 28, 2004, in Santa Barbara, California, Hargitay married Peter Hermann, an actor whom she met on the set of Law & Order: SVU, on which he plays the recurring role of defense attorney Trevor Langan.
8. On June 28, 2006, Hargitay gave birth to their son, August Miklos Friedrich Hermann, by an emergency caesarean section. In April 2011, she and her husband adopted a baby girl, Amaya, and attended her birth. In October 2011, she and her husband adopted a baby boy, Andrew, who had been born in 2011.
9. Hargitay is the founder and former president of the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization established in 2004 to provide support to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.
10. After more than two decades, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni’s friendship is still going strong. The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star reflected on their 22 year long friendship at 2021 Glamour Woman of the Year award on Monday, where Meloni presented Hargitay with the coveted title.