The daughter of screen siren Jayne Mansfield and muscular sometime movie actor Mickey Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay worked in small roles in the 1980s then found her career as a supporting player in the 90s. Hargitay went from the short-lived "Prince Street" (NBC, 1997) to the pilot for "Cracker" (ABC, 1997) to a recurring role on the hit NBC series "ER" (1997-98). Usually playing characters with an air of toughness, she found her first series work as a teen parolee desperate to be accepted in the CBS series "Downtown" (1986). Two years later, Hargitay did a stint on "Falcon Crest" (CBS, 1988) as wily Carly Fixx.

Although Mansfield's image was one more of show business and the profession of being a celebrity than actually acting, Hargitay was shielded from much of the entertainment industry after Mansfield's untimely death in 1967. Still she was lured to acting. After winning the title of Miss Beverly Hills in 1982, Hargitay made her screen debut while still a student at UCLA in Bob Fosse's "Star 80" (1983). She had a solid role in "Welcome to 18" (1986), playing one of a trio of young women working on a dude ranch for the summer, but the level of this sex comedy was such that it was not a career builder. After acting alongside her father in the Hungarian-made "Mr. Universe" (1988), she co-starred in the martial arts vengeance saga "Perfect Weapon" (1991). But a leading screen career was not in the cards and in 1995, Hargitay could be seen playing a hooker at a bar who tangles with Nicolas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas".

Despite several tries, she was unable to find steady work on a hit show in the 90s; both "Tequila and Bonetti" (CBS, 1992) and "Can't Hurry Love" (CBS, 1995-96) were short-lived. Her turn as the flighty single mother who falls for Anthony Edwards' Dr Mark Greene on "ER", however, rejuvenated her career and led to her casting as a policewoman specializing in sex crimes on the NBC drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999- ). Her role as Detective Olivia Benson, veteran of the special victims unit, earned the actress her first Golden Globe Award in 2005.