Law & Order: Special Victims Unitpremiered in 1999, and after 26 seasons on the air, some of the actors have appeared in hundreds of episodes of the series. The series has become the most successful spinoff of theLaw & Orderfranchise, even having more episodes than the flagship show.
SVUcenters on the detectives and attorneys who work on crimes with a sexual component. The characters who have appeared in the show the longest are some of the ones who end up leaving after the darkness of the job gets to them. The actors who have appeared in the most episodes are also playing iconicSVUcharacters.
11Diane Neal As Casey Novak
Seasons 5 - 9, 12, 13
Diane Neal appeared in 113 episodes ofLaw & Order: SVU, though only112 of those were as attorney Casey Novak. Her first appearance in the show was as a completely different character, which has become common practice in theLaw & Orderfranchise. There are many actors who have played more than one role.
…Novak became a great examination of how the work the team does on the show weighs on them.
Novak made her first appearance in season 5, barging into a crime scene where Benson and Stabler were gathering evidence. In her first scene in the series, Novak established herself as someone passionate about seeing cases through and making sure to do everything by the book.
She also rubbed Benson and Stabler the wrong way, but eventually becomes a firm ally for them. The darkness of the job, however, would eventually get to her. In season 9, she intentionally withholds evidence during a trial in hopes of getting a mistrial and being able to prosecute the case again. Not only did it cost her the case, but it also cost her her job for a few years.
Her behavior in the case followed her during her final appearances in seasons 12 and 13, and Novak became a great examination of how the work the team does on the show weighs on them.
10Raul Esparza As Rafael Barba
Seasons 14 - 23
Raul Esparza began his time onSVUin season 14 in recurring status before being upped to a series regular in season 15. Barba made a big impression on fans with his theatrical courtroom routines as an assistant district attorney, which included a demonstration of being strangled with a belt.
Over time, Barba revealed himself to be a ruthless lawyer who knew how to bend the rules in his favor. He also had a magnetic personality and knew how to wisecrack with the best of them, which made him a good fit to banter with the detectives whose cases he took on.
Like a lot of the characters who leftSVUafter appearing for multiple seasons, Barba’s exit from the series came after the weight of the job had become too much for him. A particularly traumatic case that involved the decision to take a child off life supportled to Barba’s resignation.
At the time,he resigned after being a prosecutor for 21 years. Despite that, he has continued to appear with Esparza getting to guest star in bothSVUandOrganized Crimeas a defense attorney, allowing Esparza to play new angles of the familiar character.
9Tamara Tunie As Dr. Melinda Warner
Seasons 2 - 23
Just as there are multiple detectives and multiple assistant district attorneys during the run of the show, there are multiple medical examiners. Dr. Melinda Warner is the one who appears the most in the series, with 226 episodes.
She is not often seen in longer story arcs, but is presented as one of the most well-rounded supporting cast members. Much about her background and her family is revealed during the time on the show. She is calm and pragmatic in her approach to dealing with cases, which makes her a grounding force during a lot of her appearances.
Over her time in the show,she has worked her way up to become the Chief Medical Examiner for her region. That means she would not be devoting her time to one unit of the police department’s cases, which makes her appearing less frequently logical as the show goes on.
WhileDr. Warren has not really been written out ofSVU, she has not appeared since the 500th episode of the series. She has, however, appeared inLaw & Order: Organized Crime as a guest star. Tunie is now one of the leads in the soap operaBeyond The Gates, but that does not mean she will not return in the future.
8DB Wong As Dr. George Huang
Seasons 2 - 17
Like Dr. Warren, Dr. Huang also made his debut in season 2 ofLaw & Order: SVU. He also appeared in close to the same number of episodes, with 230.
Dr. Huang is introduced as a forensic psychologist who primarily worked with the FBI. He lent his services to SVU periodically over the course of several seasons. Like Warren, Huang is often very clinical in his assessments, which sometimes places him at odds with the empathetic Olivia.
When he disappears from the series, it is revealed he took a new job, but he returns in season 17. There,Dr. Huang is no longer working with SVU, but has retired from his previous job and is consulting for criminal defense lawyers.After a tense standoff with Benson about his new role, Huang has not returned to SVU.
7Peter Scanavino As Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr.
Seasons 16 - 27
Carisi does not appear until season 16 of the series, but the character had a very different start than most of the ADAs in the series. Carisi started out as a police officer.
Carisi was brought intoSVUto replace another detective. During his time, it’s revealed that he is a bit of a hot head who can be intense in interrogations, which has led to him hopping around to several different units. He finds his niche in SVU - even if it is not as a detective.
Carisi not only proves himself a valuable asset and is able to get control of his temper, but he also studies to become a lawyer and works under Barba before becoming an assistant district attorney himself. Of course, he has also become closer to the team thanks to his romantic relationship with Amanda Rollins.
Carisi has appeared in 230 episodes so far, but he will also be appearing inLaw & Order: SVUseason 27, so there is certainly more to come from him.
6Kelli Giddish As Amanda Rollins
Seasons 13 - 27
Amanda Rollins is the detective thatSVUjust cannot do without. Whileshe has appeared in 263 episodes of the series so far since season 13, actor Kelli Giddish was let go from the series in 2022. Despite that, Giddish has continued to guest star as Rollins periodically in the show.
Rollins has some of the most character development of any of the characters added to the series after season 10. She made the move to New York’s SVU after working as a detective in Georgia, where she is originally from.
Rollins has battled gambling addiction, has three children, has gotten married, and has worked both in the police’s intelligence unit and as a professor specializing in Criminal Behavior. Rollins has made a huge impression on fans of the show and has been put through the ringer along the way.
Fans are definitely looking forward to Giddish returningto the role as a main character inLaw & Order: SVUseason 27.
5Christopher Meloni As Elliot Stabler
Seasons 1 - 12, 22-24, 26
…he might be leadingOrganized Crimenow, he is still very much a part ofSVU…
Christopher Meloni made hisLaw & Order: SVUdebut in the pilot episode of the series.Elliot Stabler was a series regular for the first 12 seasons of the show, and early in the series, his homelife got more development than anyone else’s until he and his family decided to move to Italy.
Stabler is as compassionate as Olivia Benson, but he is also someone who has trouble controlling his temper. While that got him in trouble his fair share of times in the show, he was always a careful detective, appearing in over 280 episodes.
Stabler leaving hurt Benson, who had been his partner for 12 years, because he left without telling her. Over a decade later, he returns to New York (andSVU). Stabler’s return facilitated the beginning of theLaw & Order: Organized Crimespinoff series.
While he might be leadingOrganized Crimenow, he is still very much a part ofSVUbecause of the closeness he still shares with his former partner. Fans have been waiting for Benson and Stabler’s relationship to become romantic, and as he continues to guest star inSVU, that possibility gets closer.
4Richard Belzer As John Munch
Seasons 1 - 15, 17
Richard Belzer’s John Muchis a uniqueLaw & Order: SVUcharacter. Though Detective Munch first appeared in theSVUpilot episode, that was not Munch’s first time on TV screen. Thecharacter actually originated on the seriesHomicide: Life on the Street.
Belzer pitched playing the same character inLaw & Orderto Dick Wolf, but they did not need another detective at the time. WhenLaw & Order: SVUwas casting, they approached him about bringing the character to the spinoff series.
Belzer played Munch on more than 10 TV shows, includingThe X-FilesandArrested Development.
Munch has a wry sense of humor and loves a good conspiracy. While he could be acerbic and even chauvinistic in the early seasons of the show, he showed himself to be a very persistent detective capable of change.
When Munch’s time on the show was shortened starting in season 9, Belzer moved to France part-time, making it easier for him to transition out of the show. His characterretired from the police force and became a special investigator for the district attorney’s office at the end of his 320+ episodes of the show.
3Dann Florek As Don Cragen
Seasons 1 - 16, 23
Dann Florek’s Captain Don Cragen is the character that anchorsLaw & Order: SVUto the original series.Cragen appeared in the first three seasons of the originalLaw & Orderbefore his character was written outof the show. He became the captain of the SVU unit when the spinoff premiered.
Because Cragen had already been fleshed out on the earlier series, it’s easy to assume thatSVUwould not spend much time fleshing him out for the spinoff series. That’s not true, though, as Cragen is the one who frequently calls on his connections to otherLaw & Ordercharacters to get breaks in cases.
He is also a recovering alcoholic and someone who sees the precinct change in huge ways around him. A character who has been doing police work since the 1970s, Cragen often provided a new perspective for the show compared to the young detectives.
Though Cragen appeared in more than 300 episodes ofSVU, he also appeared in another 70+ episodes of bothLaw & OrderandLaw & Order: Organized Crime, making him one of the actors to appear most in the franchise as a whole.
Cragen only left the SVU when he reaches the mandatory age for retirement, which is something the series does with a lot of its older actors to reflect the reality of the police department. Cragen is the one who encourages Benson to move up the ranks, and he continues to guest-star to consult on cases.
2Ice-T As Odafin ‘Fin’ Tutuola
Seasons 2 - 27
Hip-hop artistIce-T joinedLaw & Order: SVUin season 2 as a replacement for Michelle Hurd, who left the series following the first season. Ice-T’s Fin was originally paired up with Munch - and remained his partner for the entirety of Munch’s time on the show.
Like Rollins, Finn is an incredibly well-developed and well-rounded character despite initially appearing in a supporting capacity. The audience learns relatively quickly that Fin is a former Army Ranger, that his grandmother raised him, and that he longs to see the world in black-and-white.
As a former narcotics detective, Fin has a different perspective on the crimes than most of the rest of the detectives in the unit. He is also one of the detectives most likely to see the world in shades of gray instead of in black and white. He and Benson are alike in that way.
Throughout the series, it’s clear that despite the job weighing on Fin as it has on so many others, he is in it for the long haul. He even commissions a group to kidnap a suspect in Cuba at one point to get them back to New York to be charged.
