Top 10 Actors Who Have Played Multiple Roles on Law & Order: SVU

#10: Gloria Reuben

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Gloria Reuben came to most people’s attention in the 90s playing the physician assistant Jeanie Boulet on “ER”, a role that earned her a multitude of awards and nominations. Speaking of multitudes, while she didn’t garner any nominations for her performances on “Law & Order: SVU”, she did play more than one character. In her first appearance on the show in 2002, we saw Reuben as Violet Tremain, the mother of a kidnapped child. Then, half a decade later, in season 9, she was back on the show, this time playing Christine Danielson, the homicide Bureau chief working for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. This would be a role she returned to two more times later in season 12.

Dominic Fumusa has appeared in 5 episodes of SVU, and no matter which of them you’ve seen, you’d say he played a cop. You’d be right, of course, however, the name of that officer would change depending on the episode. Let us explain. Fumusa made his acting debut playing Detective Lopez in the eighth episode titled “Stalked”. He would return two years later as Lieutenant Coates in season 2, and then, way down the line, in the season 10 episode “PTSD” as yet another lieutenant. A few years after that was when he finally got a recurring character role: Captain Jason Harris in two episodes of season 13.

#8: John Doman

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If you thought Dominic Fumusa playing 4 different cops was a lot, allow us to introduce John Doman, a man who played 5 different characters on the series. He was actually featured back-to-back in the first three seasons, all as different people! And that’s just a small part of Doman’s connection to the “Law & Order” Extended Universe. As some L&O superfans could tell you, by the time he showed up on “Special Victims Unit'' in the year 2000, he’d already appeared on the original “Law & Order” three times as three different characters. Doman would go on to play two more, not including his guest appearances in spin-offs “Trial by Jury” and “Criminal Intent” . This guy should have his own ‘dum dum’ whenever he walks into a room.

For fans of “The Wire”, Isiah Whitlock Jr. will always be Clay Davis - the corrupt state senator who had a thing for taking money and elongating his curse words. But, to fans of “Law & Order: SVU” he will always be… well, we don’t really know, because he played so many different characters. Maybe it’s Captain Reece, given that he was recurring. Or, maybe, it’s one of his other one-off characters, including a robbery division captain and an NTCC representative. Should we even mention all his other roles from the franchise? We’d be here awhile if we did.

#6: Peter Scanavino

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If you take a look at Peter Scanavino’s IMDb credits for “Law & Order: SVU” you’ll, naturally, see episode after episode with the credit for Dominick Carisi Jr. But, if you’re persistent enough to scroll down to the bottom – which we are – you’ll find an episode from 2013 titled, “Monster's Legacy”, where the character he played is listed as Johnny Dubcek. That’s right. As some eagle-eyed “SVU” fans remember, Scanavino had a one-off role as a murder suspect in season 14 before his start as Carisi in season 16.

Kelli Giddish made her debut as Detective Amanda Rollins on the “SVU” season 13 premiere in 2011. But, as it turns out, her turn as Rollins wasn’t the actress' first time interacting with the members of the elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. That actually happened four years earlier when Giddish made a guest appearance on the show as Kara Bawson, a victim of sexual assault. As she was giving Ice-T her statement in the show, little did she know that just a few years later they would be in the same unit.

Throughout the series run, Diane Neal played A.D.A. Casey Novak in a handful of seasons. However, before she started her run putting away criminals, she had a turn at being a criminal herself in the season three episode “Ridicule”. Neal plays Amelia Chase, a woman convicted of assaulting a sex worker and killing one of her friends. Chase ends up being prosecuted by A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot, the person whose job she would later take over in her role as Casey Novak. It seems the casting director had quite the sense of humor.

#3: Peyton List

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If you were surprised to read that the girl who played Emma on the Disney Channel series “Jessie” was also featured in multiple roles on “SVU”, you should be. Because it didn’t happen. While that Peyton List has only made one appearance on the show, it’s a different Peyton List who’s shown up thrice. List, who would go on to play Jane Siegel in “Mad Men”, actually made two “SVU” appearances in 2001 and 2003, and then again in 2017, to add one more to her “SVU” character list - pun totally intended.

Actor Kyle MacLachlan was a special agent on “Twin Peaks” and The Captain on “How I Met Your Mother”. In 2004, he was a doctor on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” - a psychiatrist whose son is killed by the child next door. After that, MacLachlan had a number of other roles, including a memorable six-year run on the ABC hit show “Desperate Housewives”, a part he was still playing in 2011 when “SVU” called him back in - this time to play a U.S. ambassador with an awful son and a secret.

In 2001, years before she started playing country music star Juliette Barnes on “Nashville”, Hayden Panettiere made her first appearance on “SVU”, fittingly, as the young daughter of a country music star. In 2005, the year before Panettiere began her run as the high school cheerleader who couldn’t be killed on “Heroes”, she played a killer high school student on another episode of “SVU”. Both “Law & Order” appearances happened before Panettiere was a household name, so they might not have registered with fans as much then. They most definitely do now, though, given her star status all these years later.