We’ve all fallen into the rabbit hole of Law & Order: SVU. You wake up on a Saturday and tell yourself you’ll just watch one episode and then start your errands, and eight hours later you’re still glued to your TV trying to figure out who’s the rapist, who’s the liar and who’s the real victim in your tenth episode of the day. It’s just ~so~ addictive.
On a recent fall into SVUland, I came across a ridiculous number of celebs I had no idea played guest stars on the show. From Pitch Perfect‘s Brittany Snow playing a bipolar high school student, to Norman Reedus (of The Walking Dead fame) killing it as a rock star totally against psychiatry and medication, so many of our fave stars have made an appearance. Here are 30 celebrity cameos on Law & Order: SVU.
1. Bradley Cooper
Who he played: Jason Whitaker, a lawyer who’s caught up in a rape-homicide investigation because he’s trying to protect one of his clients.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 6, Episode 20
2. Hayden Panettiere
Who she played: Ashley Austin Black, the daughter of a platinum-selling singer who’s being investigated for parental neglect. But that’s not all! Hayd came back a couple seasons later to play Angela Agnelli, the BFF of a girl who shows up dead. They’re both good ones.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 2, Episode 11 AND Season 6, Episode 15
3. John Ritter
Who he played: Dr. Richard Manning, a psychiatrist who is put on trial for the attempted murder of his wife as well as the abortion of her child.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 3, Episode 11
4. Serena Williams
Who she played: Chloe Spiers, a college basketball player who’s fed booze all night by a group of guys at a bar, strips for the camera, and then finds the video has been uploaded to a porn site. Sh!t hits the fan when the creator of the website, a local fraternity pledge master, is found murdered and sodomized.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 5, Episode 12
5. Brittany Snow and 6. Norman Reedus
Who they played: Jamie Hoskins (Brittany Snow) is a bipolar high-school student who goes off her meds, leading her to get behind the wheel and ~accidentally~ mow down 10 people. Meanwhile, she claims she went off her meds because of rock star Derek Lord’s (Norman Reedus’) crusade against psychiatric drugs.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 7, Episode 22
7. Mark-Paul Gosselaar and 8. Elizabeth Banks
Who they played: Wesley Jansen (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) was shot and raped outside of a gay bar, much to the shock of his wife, Jaina Jansen (Elizabeth Banks). When Detectives Stabler and Benson investigate who the shooter is, the family’s life is turned upside-down.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 3, Episode 7
9. Melissa Joan Hart
Who she played: Sarah Trent, a high school teacher who is arrested for having sex with her student. However, the case takes a surprising turn when she claims the student actually raped her.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 9, Episode 3
10. Robin Williams
Who he played: Merritt Rook, an engineer who is put on trial for conducting cruel experiments on his victims to see how far they’ll go when listening to authority.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 9, Episode 17
11. Sarah Hyland
Who she played: Jennifer Banks, a high school student at a prestigious prep school who is the prime suspect in the death of her best friend, another child prodigy.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 10, Episode 12
12. Jennifer Love Hewitt
Who she played: Vicki Sayers, a woman who has been stalked and raped by the same man four times in different states across the country. As detectives investigate further, they find she may not be his only victim.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 12, Episode 3
13. Martin Short
Who he played: Sebastian Ballentine, a ~psychic~ who claims to have information on the kidnapping of an 18-year-old girl. Detective Stabler isn’t having it, and believes that he’s somehow involved in the abduction.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 6, Episode 18
14. John Stamos
Who he played: Ken Turner, a “reproductive abuser” who has over 20 kids, and is involved in the case of an abandoned baby.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 12, Episode 22
15. James Van Der Beek
Who he played: Sean Albert, a man preying on the daughters he fathered through a sperm bank.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 13, Episode 20
16. Shiri Appleby
Who she played: Coast Guard Officer Amelia Albers, who was gang-raped by a group of her fellow comrades. The case is made difficult to solve for detectives due to governmental red tape.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 15, Episode 7
17. Alec Baldwin
Who they played: Jimmy MacArther, a meddlesome newspaper journalist who gets in the way of detectives solving a high-profile hate crime after he comes out saying that the entire thing was a hoax.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 15, Episode 17
18. Hilary Duff
Who she played: Ashlee Walker, a young, seemingly unfit mother who is the lead suspect in the disappearance of her young daughter.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 10, Episode 19
19. Bob Saget
Who he played: Glenn Cheales, a jealous husband who is caught up in the murder investigation of a poisoned model. It appears Cheales’ wife was having an affair with the model’s choreographer husband.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 8, Episode 9
20. Rooney Mara
Who she played: Jessica DeLay, a gifted piano student at a prestigious high school who is attacked and sodomized by a pair of siblings. The siblings argue that they attacked her as retribution for the things her and her friends did to their morbidly obese brother.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 7, Episode 20
21. Milo Ventimiglia
Who he played: Lee Healy, a young man who has lived for the past 10 years thinking his own stepfather raped him. When the stepfather escapes from prison and the investigation picks up a decade later, it appears the wrong man was sent to prison for the rape.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 5, Episode 11
22. Kate Mara
Who she played: Lori, a competitive gymnast who is dragged into the murder investigation of a 16-year-old girl from her gym.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 2, Episode 9
23. Julie Bowen
Who she played: Gwen Sibert, a woman who was raped years back but the investigation went cold. A new case of a foster child crying abuse leads Detective Benson to reopen the rape case.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 10, Episode 1
24. Marcia Cross
Who she played: Gwen Sibert, a woman who was raped years back but the investigation went cold. A new case of a foster child crying abuse leads Detective Benson to reopen the rape case.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 10, Episode 1
24. Marcia Cross
Who she played: Jo Marlowe, one of Detective Stabler’s former partners, who joins the team as an A.D.A and in her first episode helps to track down an arsonist.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 11, Episodes 21-24
26. Eric McCormack
Who he played: Vance Shepard, an Internet entrepreneur who is a suspect in the killing of an online call girl. Detectives believe Shepard, one of her former “sugar daddies,” may know more than he’s letting on.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 11, Episode 2
27. Scott Foley
Who he played: Dalton Rindell, an alcoholic who started drinking again and is charged in the brutal rape and murder of an abortion doctor. His defense that alcoholism is a disease does not sit well with the A.D.A.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 11, Episode 4
28. Abigail Breslin
Who she played: Patty Branson, a 6-year-old who was almost kidnapped while at the park with her father. The investigation takes a bizarre twist when it turns into a child custody case.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 6, Episode 1
29. Ian Somerhalder and 30. Jason Ritter
Who they played: Brothers Charlie (Ian Somerhalder) and Billy Baker (Jason Ritter), who are mixed up in the investigation of a quadruple homicide that has sexual overtones.
Watch in: Law & Order: SVU; Season 4, Episode 20