The Law & Order franchise has been a staple of network television for more than three decades, ranging from when NBC had several of the shows going strong to when Law & Order: SVU was briefly the last spinoff standing. As of 2023, NBC had a whole night of primetime devoted to the franchise with Law & Order, SVU, and Organized Crime on Thursdays. In the wake of a successful set of finales (available streaming via a Peacock Premium subscription), it’s worth looking back at the Law & Order cast members who have appeared in the most episodes.
Law & Order: LA, Trial By Jury, and True Crime didn’t last long enough for any stars to make the Top 25, but the original, SVU, and Criminal Intent all hit double digit seasons, and Organized Crime's leading man already had a long history before getting his own show. While many fans can guess who has the most appearances, there are some in the Top 25 that may surprise even diehards. Grab your gavel if you’ve got one, get comfortable, and read on for the Law & Order franchise actors who have appeared the most!
25. Raúl Esparza - 93 Episodes
Raúl Esparza played ADA Rafael Barba on SVU from Season 14 - Season 19, at which point the actor decided to depart. He has returned for guest appearances since, and visited Organized Crime’s turf for an episode in 2021. Esparza also has the bragging rights of portraying three different characters across four Law & Order shows, as he played different roles on Criminal Intent in 2009 and Law & Order in 2010 before joining SVU in 2012.
24. Stephanie March - 94 Episodes
Stephanie March just barely beats Esparza in total episode count, as she played ADA Alex Cabot as SVU’s first regular prosecutor. She had a key role after debuting as part of Season 2 in 2000, but a threat to her life in Season 5 meant entering the witness protection program. Alex would later return and resume work, but hasn’t been seen since Season 19. March never crossed over to one of the other Law & Order shows, so all 94 of her episodes were on SVU.
23. Benjamin Bratt - 95 Episodes
Before Benjamin Bratt became known for Miss Congeniality, he was a familiar face on Law & Order as Detective Rey Curtis from 1995 - 1999. Although Curtis had to deal with some personal complications, he formed a strong bond with Lennie Brisco (Jerry Orbach). His final appearance as a regular was in Season 9, but he returned for a guest spot in 2009 as part of what was ultimately the last season before being cancelled, and long before its long-awaited revival.
22. Diane Neal - 107 Episodes
Diane Neal joined SVU in Season 5 as ADA Casey Novak in the wake of Stephanie March’s first departure, after Neal originally appeared in a one-off guest spot in Season 3. Casey was the main prosecutor until Season 9 and was a guest star on Trial By Jury before the character left. Neal returned briefly in Seasons 12 and 13; but based on Neal’s comments blasting SVU in 2022, fans may not want to count on seeing Casey again.
21. Jamey Sheridan - 111 Episodes
Jamey Sheridan played NYPD Captain James Deakins, who was the main supervisor of Criminal Intent for the first five seasons. The character chose to retire rather than continue in his role when he was attracting attention for all the wrong reasons, and Deakins did not appear again after the Season 5 finale in 2006. Sheridan went on to roles in shows including Homeland, Agent X, and Arrow.
20. Courtney B. Vance - 113 Episodes
Courtney B. Vance played ADA Ron Carver for five seasons of Criminal Intent before he, too, was written out in the Season 5 finale in 2006. Carver has not made any further guest appearances, and Vance is another star who played multiple roles within the franchise thanks to two different characters in Law & Order episodes. He went on to win two Emmys thanks to his roles in The People v. O.J. Simpson and Lovecraft Country.
19. Vincent D'Onofrio - 141 Episodes
Years before Vincent D’Onofrio debuted his Daredevil role as Wilson Fisk, he starred as Detective Bobby Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent across all ten seasons. Goren’s partnership with Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe) was key to the series, despite both seemingly leaving the NYPD at one point before the final season. D’Onofrio didn’t appear elsewhere in the franchise.
18. Fred Thompson - 141 Episodes
While the late Fred Thompson appeared in the same number of episodes as Vincent D’Onofrio, he was one of the most prolific stars of the franchise as DA Arthur Branch, and is therefore placed ahead of D’Onofrio. With a total of 116 episodes on the original Law & Order, he also accumulated eleven on SVU, one on Criminal Intent, and all thirteen episodes of Trial by Jury. Prior to playing Branch for the franchise, he was a U.S. Senator from Tennessee. Thompson died in 2015 at the age of 73.
17. BD Wong - 143 Episodes
While BD Wong may be known on the big screen for playing Henry Wu in Jurassic Park and the Jurassic World franchise, procedural fans undoubtedly know him best as Dr. George Huang from SVU. Huang wasn’t originally a full-time part of the Special Victims squad as an FBI agent, but would become their go-to for criminal profiling. Sadly, Huang hasn’t appeared since Season 17.
16. Kathryn Erbe - 144 Episodes
As Detective Alex Eames, Kathryn Erbe starred opposite Vincent D’Onofrio on Criminal Intent, but accumulated more appearances across the franchise thanks to two episodes of SVU in 2012 and 2013, which followed the end of CI in 2011. Eames was promoted to lieutenant by the time she teamed up with Olivia Benson and Co.
15. Chris Noth - 147 Episodes
Chris Noth worked as a series regular on multiple Law & Order shows. From 1990 - 1995, he played Detective Mike Logan on the flagship series for a total of 111 episodes. Noth later reprised the role for 36 episodes of Criminal Intent, but has not appeared in the franchise since 2008. Given the actor’s firing from another job in the wake of sexual assault allegations, Mike Logan returning to the franchise seems unlikely.
14. Tamara Tunie - 176 Episodes
Tamara Tunie played Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Melinda Warner on SVU going back to Season 2 in 2000, and has gone on to appear in almost every season since. She guest-starred on Trial by Jury in 2005 and later made a notable return for SVU's 500th episode in 2021. As a bonus (not counted in her L&O total), she even portrayed Warner for a rare crossover episode between the Law & Order franchise and One Chicago. Plus, Tunie had a one-off role in the seventh season of Law & Order in 1996.
13. Peter Scanavino - 189 Episodes
Peter Scanavino is still a series regular as ADA Carisi on SVU. The character started out as a detective before becoming a prosecutor, and his relationship with Amanda Rollins is a light spot in an emotionally heavy show. Before debuting as Carisi in 2014, he played different characters in SVU Season 14, Law & Order Season 20, Criminal Intent Season 5, and Trial by Jury Season 1. Add Organized Crime as Carisi, and Scanavino has been all over the franchise!
12. Jesse L. Martin - 202 Episodes
Jesse L. Martin spent nearly ten years on Law & Order as Detective Ed Green, and ended his run just shy of 200 episodes on that series. Fortunately, some guest roles on SVU, Criminal Intent, and Trial by Jury bumped him up to hit and surpass that milestone. While Martin has given no sign that he’s reprising his role, he is returning to NBC as star of the upcoming drama called The Irrational.
11. Steven Hill - 228 Episodes
The original district attorney of the Law & Order franchise was Adam Schiff, played by Steven Hill over the first ten seasons of the series. The actor’s departure from Law & Order in 2000 meant that Schiff’s time as DA ended before Criminal Intent, Organized Crime, and less successful spinoff attempts like Trial by Jury debuted, but he did guest star in an episode of SVU's first season before bowing out. Hill died in 2016 at the age of 94.
10. Richard Belzer - 247 Episodes
Richard Belzer played John Munch throughout seventeen seasons of SVU, along with a handful of guest appearances across Law & Order and Trial by Jury. That said, if this list accounted for every time that Belzer played Munch, it would have to account for series including Homicide: Life on the Street, The X-Files, Arrested Development, and 30 Rock, to name just some. Were all of those appearances canon to SVU? Certainly not, but the late actor (who died at 78 in early 2023) brought humor to very serious subject matter.
9. Kelli Giddish - 249 Episodes
Kelli Giddish debuted as Amanda Rollins in Season 13, a.k.a. the post-Elliot Stabler era of Law & Order: SVU in 2011, although she previously played a different character in Season 8. Giddish was written out as a series regular halfway through Season 24, then returned for the SVU/Organized Crime crossover finale event. Whether she’ll return for good in the wake of her former show saying goodbye to another female detective remains to be seen.
8. Leslie Hendrix - 263 Episodes
Leslie Hendrix is the only franchise star who can boast episode counts in triple digits for two of the series! The actress played Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers for 143 episodes of Law & Order between 1992 - 2010, on top of 110 episodes of Criminal Intent from 2001 - 2011. Plus, she has nine episodes of SVU and one episode of Trial by Jury to her name. Her last appearance in the Law & Order franchise was in the tenth and final season of CI.
7. Jerry Orbach - 280 Episodes
Jerry Orbach made his first appearance as Detective Lennie Brisco in Season 3 of Law & Order (although he played a different character in Season 2), and he would go on to become one of the most recognizable faces of the franchise. In addition to 274 episodes of the original series, he played Brisco in three episodes of SVU and one episode of Criminal Intent, as well as the first two episodes of Trial by Jury, prior to his death in late 2004.
6. Christopher Meloni - 333 Episodes
Even though Christopher Meloni is the star of Law & Order: Organized Crime, only 52 of his franchise appearances come from OC. He has appeared in 277 episodes of SVU, with the most recent being the Season 24 finale. He famously left SVU over the hiatus between Seasons 12 and 13, before returning nearly a decade later for OC, but appeared in episodes of Law & Order and Trial by Jury before taking his long break from Elliot Stabler.
5. Dann Florek - 379 Episodes
Dann Florek is another star who benefited from long runs on more than one show in the franchise. He started out as Captain Don Cragen on Law & Order in 1990 and would go on to accumulate 69 episodes before moving over to SVU for more than 300 episodes. Although Cragen retired in Season 15, he returned in Season 16 and then again for a cameo in the 500th episode before dropping by Organized Crime for a couple of episodes
4. S. Epatha Merkerson - 391 Episodes
S. Epatha Merkerson was a fixture on Law & Order as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren from Season 4 all the way to Season 20, which was the last until NBC revived the drama in 2022. The actress would next become a series regular on Chicago Med, which shares a TV universe with Law & Order. In fact, if total episodes across all of the nine-show Wolf Entertainment TV universe were counted, Merkerson would be at more than 500. While she played Van Buren in Trial by Jury and Criminal Minds, she never made it to SVU.
3. Sam Waterston - 405 Episodes
Although NBC celebrated Sam Waterston’s 400th episode of Law & Order with the recent Season 22 finale, he had actually already hit the milestone in the franchise thanks to appearances on SVU and Trial by Jury. Jack McCoy was not part of the Organized Crime hour of the three-show crossover that started the 2022-2023 TV season, so only time will tell if Waterston will be able to add Christopher Meloni’s show to his credits when OC returns in midseason.
2. Ice-T - 483 Episodes
Although Ice-T didn’t debut Detective Odafin Tutuola until Season 2 of Law & Order: SVU, he has outlasted every original member of the cast as series regular aside from Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson. The musician/actor also portrayed Fin on Organized Crime and Law & Order, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in early 2023. Fin has gone from the new detective in the unit back in 2000 to a sergeant by Season 24.
1. Mariska Hargitay - 548 Episodes
Is there any surprise that Mariska Hargitay has appeared in the most episodes across the Law & Order franchise? Playing Olivia Benson since the premiere of SVU in 1999, the TV icon has only missed nine episodes in the history of that series, and added to her total with nineteen guest appearances across Organized Crime, Law & Order, and Trial by Jury. With Benson going from NYPD detective in 1999 to NYPD captain by 2023, she has been investigating – to quote SVU's opening narration – ”especially heinous” crimes and “vicious felonies” for nearly a quarter century.
All three of the current Law & Order shows are on summer hiatus, and Organized Crime isn't returning until midseason. You can find current and former Law & Order shows streaming via a Peacock subscription, and some upcoming viewing options on our 2023 TV premiere schedule. Dick Wolf has another first responder project in the works with LA Fire & Rescue, which should be a great fit for fans of the existing Wolf Entertainment shows!
