Jill Hennessy

Her mixed heritage includes Irish italians, Swedish, Italians as well as French and Ukrainians. The twin sister of her, Jacqueline is an actress. Growing up, Jill became fluent in various languages like Italian, French and Spanish. Jill began to become interested in acting at the age of 12. In Toronto the city she was born, she began her professional career as an actor in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. She played an escort in the show with one of the sisters. After that, she was studying improv with Second City under Deb Kimmet. After a few years, she relocated back to New York and signed a contract to portray assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid on the long run of the hit show, Law & Order. In addition, she appeared in movies including RoboCop 3 (1998), Ron Howard's The Paper (2000) and I Shot Andy Warhol 1996) over the course of her three-year stint. Through the following years she was offered roles in an assortment of uninteresting films. But in 1999, she got a role as the lead in the miniseries uremberg along with Alec Baldwin. Roles in major productions including Autumn in New York and Exit Wounds followed. In 2001 she was cast in the lead role in the NBC-TV crime series Crossing Jordan and in 2007, she won the Gracie Allen award as "Outstanding Female Leading in an Drama Series" due to her role on the show. In 2000, she was married to fellow actor Paolo Mastropietro. Together, they have two children. In 2007, she was awarded a place on Canada's Walk of Fame.