Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay plays Captain Olivia Benson on the NBC series LAW & ORDER: SVU, where she is also an Executive Producer and has directed multiple episodes. She won an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Drama, a Golden Globe Award, and earned an additional seven Emmy nominations, five SAG Award nominations, and two Gracie Allen Awards for American Women in Radio and Television.

Mariska’s role on SVU awakened her to burdens that survivors of trauma often carry: the weight of shame, judgement and isolation. Inspired by their courage, she founded the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004, whose mission is to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever. At the heart of their advocacy work is the “End the Backlog” campaign, which aims to eliminate the backlog of hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits sitting in storage across America, so that survivors can get the closure they deserve. She produced I AM EVIDENCE, an HBO documentary film on the topic that premiered in April 2018 and received an Emmy for “Best Documentary” at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards in September 2019.

Mariska also co-produced EMANUEL, a documentary about the Charleston church shooting which premiered in June 2019, and MY BEAUTIFUL STUTTER, a documentary about a summer camp for young people who stutter.

Mariska resides in New York with her husband, Peter Hermann, and their three children.