‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star’s Insane Salary Revealed
The character also holds a historic TV record.
NBC/Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Mariska Hargitay is taking home an eye-boggling amount of cash for each Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode.
Variety has revealed that the 62-year-old Law & Order veteran takes home around $850,000 per episode. According to the Daily Mail, with more than 20 episodes per season, Hargitay could earn between $17.85 million and $18.7 million for the show’s 28th season.
Hargitay has starred as Olivia Benson on the police procedural series since September 1999. Hargitay’s Olivia Benson is the longest-running female character in a TV drama, and she has won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal.
Mariska Hargitay as Capt. Olivia Benson.
NBC/Virginia Sherwood/NBC
In 2014, she became an executive producer on the NBC series, elevating her existing pay.
In 2024, Forbes named Hargitay “the highest-paid actor on television by a wide margin.” At the time, she was earning an estimated $750,000 per episode, including fees for producing and profits from syndication. She ranked No. 11 on the Forbes list, beating out big-screen stars like Channing Tatum, Matt Damon, and Scarlett Johansson that year.
On Nov. 12, the 600th episode of Law & Order: SVU aired. In conversation with Variety, Hargitay shared a speech she wrote for the cast’s milestone celebration.
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“Here we are at episode 600, and it really doesn’t feel totally real, which in a way is exactly how it should feel, because it’s as if we all get to live in this dream of what you thought might be possible someday,” her speech read. “And you’ve shown that it’s not only possible, but it’s so much better than anyone could have imagined.”
Mariska Hargitay as Capt. Olivia Benson, Christopher Meloni as Det. Elliot Stabler in Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/PEACOCK
The episode sees the return of actor Chris Meloni and his character, Elliot Stabler, who has made a handful of cameos on the show since his official departure in 2011.
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