A-List Stars You Didn't Know Were On Law & Order: SVU

In its more than two decades on the air, "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" has employed hundreds of actors. Led from the very first episode by Mariska Hargitay's stalwart detective Olivia Benson, the show's core cast of police and prosecutors is surrounded by an ever-changing collection of officers, lawyers, criminal offenders, witnesses, and victims. Thanks to the show's New York-based production, a fair number of Broadway actors have appeared on the show over the decades, from divas like Audra McDonald to newcomers like "West Side Story" breakout Mike Faist. For the most part, though, most of the show's recognizable actors outside of series regulars like Ice-T and BD Wong are former television stars or "Hey, it's that guy!"-style character actors.

Every so often, however, one of those small-time "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" roles will be an early part in the career of a future Oscar winner or a young actor on the cusp of stardom. Even more rarely, there are occasions when the show will bring in a major star for a single episode or two, lending gravitas to the often-lurid "ripped from the headlines" episodes. Here is a list of  A-list actors who have appeared in "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit."

The Special Victims Unit joins the FBI's hunt for a man on an interstate shooting spree in the Season 14 episode "Dreams Deferred." When the killer (longtime "Special Victims Unit" utility player P.J. Brown) contacts veteran sex worker Jeannie, played by Patricia Arquette, Benson and Capt. Cragen (Dann Florek) use her as bait to draw him out into the open. Despite the life-or-death stakes of the manhunt, the episode focuses more on Jeannie's life on the street and Benson's efforts to get her reunited with her family.

Arquette had been a film and television star for over two decades when she made her splashy "Special Victims Unit" debut. Born into a showbiz family, Arquette and her siblings Rosanna, David, and Alexis all became notable actors. Patricia made her film debut as the lead in the horror sequel "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" in 1987. Throughout the 1990s she worked with directors such as Tony Scott in the Quentin Tarantino-penned "True Romance," David Lynch in "Lost Highway," and Martin Scorsese in "Bringing Out the Dead," which she appeared in alongside her then-husband Nicolas Cage. 

Starting in 2005, she starred in the NBC supernatural drama "Medium," for which Arquette won an Emmy and a Golden Globe. During this time, she was also filming what would become Richard Linklater's experimental feature "Boyhood," which documented a young man's adolescence in real-time across twelve years. Arquette won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her performance in 2015.

A pre-fame Elizabeth Banks stars in the Season 3 episode "Sacrifice." When a young man (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is found shot and possibly raped outside of a gay bar, he is initially hesitant to cooperate with Benson and Stabler. At first, they believe that he is keeping a secret double life from his wife (Banks), but the truth turns out to be much more complicated, involving a violent, controlling adult film director (Tom Gilroy) and the couple's disabled daughter. Despite wrestling with a country-fried Arkansas accent, Banks makes a great impression as a woman caught in a situation with no good choices.

Just a few months before this episode aired, Banks starred in the cult comedy classic "Wet Hot American Summer," part of a stacked cast of future stars including Paul Rudd, fellow "Special Victims Unit" alum Bradley Cooper, and Det. Stabler himself, Christopher Meloni. Her skills as a comic actor won her roles in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Role Models," "Scrubs," and "30 Rock," where she played a love interest of Alec Baldwin. Banks is no stranger to blockbuster franchises, either. She played Daily Bugle secretary Betsy Brant in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy and stole the show in the "Hunger Games" and "Pitch Perfect" films. 

In recent years she has worked behind the camera as a producer and director, helming "Pitch Perfect 2" and the 2019 "Charlie's Angels" remake while serving as executive producer on Aidy Bryant's Hulu series "Shrill."

The Season 6 episode "Night" was a two-part crossover with the single-season spinoff "Law & Order: Trial by Jury." When a Jane Doe is found raped and murdered with hundred dollar bills stuffed in her mouth, the trail leads to the scion of a wealthy and powerful family (Alfred Molina) who is protected by his politically connected mother (Angela Lansbury). First, though, the trail goes through the family's young hotshot attorney, played by Bradley Cooper in full smarm mode. Though his fingerprints are on those hundred-dollar bills left at the crime scene, Benson and Stabler intuit that he is not the killer but rather represents the killer as a client.

Cooper brings the same cocky energy and smug personality that made him a standout villain in "Wedding Crashers" that same year. Still, it would take a few years, and a few attempts in lead roles — most notably, as an Anthony Bourdain proxy on Fox's television adaptation of "Kitchen Confidential" — before stardom would strike. Eventually, his appearances in the megahit "Hangover" trilogy and voicing Rocket Racoon across the Marvel Cinematic Universe made Cooper a household name. During that time, he's earned critical acclaim and Oscar nominations for his work with directors Clint Eastwood, David O. Russell, and Guillermo del Toro. 

In 2018 he stepped behind the camera for the first time, directing and starring (alongside Lady Gaga) in a critically and commercially successful remake of "A Star is Born."

"She's French and a bit unbalanced." Such is the description of Sophie Gerard, played by French icon Isabelle Huppert in the Season 11 finale "Shattered." When a kidnapping plot to regain custody of her son goes tragically awry, Sophie suffers a mental breakdown and takes Benson, Marlowe (Sharon Stone), and Medical Examiner Warner (Tamara Tunie) hostage. As Stabler and the rest of the NYPD work to rescue the hostages, they discover that Sophie's husband, also among the hostages, knows more about their son's death than he is admitting.

Much like the episodes featuring Patricia Arquette and Alec Baldwin, "Shattered" exists mainly as a showcase for its guest star. Huppert rages and weeps, filling the screen with emotion and power. A star in France since the early 1970s, Huppert made her English language debut in Michael Cimino's infamous 1980 flop "Heaven's Gate." Huppert has been nominated for sixteen Cesar awards, the most of any French actress and second only to Gerard Depardieu, and won twice. First for the 1995 domestic drama "La cérémonie" and in 2017 for the Paul Verhoeven rape-revenge drama "Elle," for which she also received an Academy Award nomination. 

Beyond awards recognition, she has received acclaim for her bold, unflinching work with directors such as Michael Haneke, David O. Russell, and Neil Jordan.

Bradley Cooper isn't the only A-list star to appear in the Season 6 crossover episode "Night." Stage and screen legend Rita Moreno makes a short but vital appearance early in the episode as neighborhood activist Mildred Quintana. Seen leading a candlelight vigil for the rapist's latest victim, she lays out the situation for Benson and Stabler. She explains that the immigrant women he prefers to attack are afraid to go to the police for fear of deportation. Since the police can't open an investigation without a victim's complaint, nothing ever gets done.

With a career stretching back to the early 1950s, it can be easy to take Moreno for granted; it feels like she has always been here. She is the rare recipient of the full EGOT, winning two Emmys, a Grammy (as a cast member of "The Electric Company"), an Oscar (for 1960's "West Side Story"), and a Tony. After many years of taking journeyman television roles on "Oz," "Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego," and others, she was discovered by a new generation thanks to her acclaimed turn on Netflix's remake of the 1980s sitcom "One Day at a Time." She was also put in front of new and old fans when she appeared in Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake of "West Side Story."

Now in her nineties, Moreno is still going strong.

Questions of police bias and rehabilitation come to the fore in the Season 5 episode "Criminal." When a law student is found dead in Central Park, all signs point to her advisor, a reformed murderer Cragen had arrested decades earlier. Cragen and the rest of SVU are convinced of his guilt, but the man's daughter, played by Zoe Saldana, maintains his innocence and attests that he is a changed man. Is he — or is Stabler right when he tells Benson, "Once a killer, always a killer?"

"Special Victims Unit" caught Saldana just as her career was about to skyrocket. Though she had appeared in early 2000s sleepover classics like "Center Stage" and "Crossroads," she was far from a movie star in 2004. Later that year, however, she had a featured role in Steven Spielberg's comedy "The Terminal," and in 2005 starred opposite Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac in the "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" riff "Guess Who." In 2009, Saldana appeared in two of her three major blockbuster film franchises with the premiere of "Avatar" and J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek." Her role as Gamora in Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" films wouldn't premiere for another few years, but her involvement in the MCU would cement her position as a major figure in pop culture. 

Saldana also voiced the lead role in the 2021 Netflix animated adventure series "Maya and the Three" alongside fellow "Special Victims Unit" alum Rita Moreno.

By the time he starred in the Season 9 episode "Authority" in 2008, Robin Williams had already established himself as a great dramatic actor as well as a great comedian. Here, he exudes the same quiet menace that he brought to films like "Insomnia" and "One Hour Photo" as Merritt Rook, an aerospace engineer who impersonates a police officer and orders a fast-food manager to molest an employee. At the trial, Merritt represents himself and uses the case to put forth a philosophy of social disobedience that wins him a lot of public support. However, this isn't the first time he's used his powers of persuasion to violent ends, and soon Benson and Stabler learn that his need to teach people a lesson is really a need for others to feel the same pain that he does.

Williams was arguably the biggest guest star in "Special Victims Unit" history, and the role won him the seventh Emmy nomination of his career. It also wasn't the first time that the "Aladdin" and "Good Will Hunting" star had appeared somewhat unexpectedly on an NBC crime drama. In 1994 he had earned another Emmy nomination for a particularly poignant episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street." Williams would make a few more random television appearances in the years after "Authority," most notably playing himself in an episode of "Louie" and an episode of "Spongebob SquarePants." In 2013 he starred in the one-season David E. Kelley dramedy "The Crazy Ones," his first regular starring role on television since the end of "Mork & Mindy" in 1982. Sadly, Williams died by suicide in August 2014.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.