Law & Order has helped launch the careers of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
And no, we’re not talking about longtime veterans of the hit NBC crime drama like Anthony Anderson, Sam Waterson or Benjamin Bratt. You won’t believe some of the TV and film actors who have appeared on the procedural over the past few decades before becoming household names.
Did you know that long before she was winning Emmys and starring on television’s most talked-about series, Sarah Paulson landed her very first acting role in 1994 playing a teen who claimed that she was having an affair with her murdered mother’s new husband? And nearly two decades before playing Tommy Lee on Hulu’s recent hit Pam & Tommy, a young Sebastian Stan portrayed a boy abducted and raised by his abuser.
A-listers like Julia Roberts, Ellen Pompeo, Samuel L. Jackson and Jennifer Garner have also appeared on Law & Order early in their blockbuster careers.