Mariska hargitay mother biography graphic organizer

In car parlance, I might be a barn find -- a dust-covered vehicle that’s been unearthed after many years of storage. I wasn’t exactly in storage but I was in the barn for 40 years, inching toward the door -- i.e. my lifelong goal to be a working actress.

I worked 9 to 5 and was a single parent and couldn’t get an LA agent, so I simply did what I could around those parameters. For decades. At times my forward progress seemed imperceptible. Then in 2022, I went from zero ability to get an agent, to bi-coastal representation. In 2023, I went from zero TV credits to a co-star role with Mariska Hargitay in “Law & Order: SVU.”

If you too have been inching toward a door, I hope the following account of my snail’s pace journey will encourage you to keep going.

Ever since I was a little girl in Wisconsin watching “The Carol Burnett Show,” I wanted to be a comedic actress. That was never going to fly in my Serbian immigrant family, so I became an advertising copywriter instead.

In 1983

My first job out of college was with an ad agency that began using me in radio commercials when they discovered I could do accents and voices. It was my first foray into acting and it was magical.

In 1985

I moved to San Diego, got another ad agency job, and began doing standup at The Comedy Store. Without realizing it at the time, it was great training for auditions -- listening and staying present through extreme terror, then eventually getting past terror.

In 1986

I recklessly married someone I didn’t know well. This is where the single parenthood comes in.

In 1988

I started working as a copywriter in the marketing department of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Due to parenthood, my nights and weekends were no longer free so I went outside my job description and applied comedy to the weekly sales meeting. I even made my first film -- a parody motivational short with herky-jerky editing accomplished by plugging my 50-pound camcorder into the

Speaker 1: All Inclusive, a podcast on inclusion, innovation and social justice with Jay Ruderman.

Jay Ruderman: Hi, I’m Jay Ruderman, and this is All Inclusive. A podcast focused on inclusion, innovation and social justice. Mariska Hargitay is best known for playing Olivia Benson on Law and Order SVU. For the past [00:00:30] 23 seasons, she has dealt with topics on sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse in the United States. She’s also received thousands of emails from survivors sharing their stories of abuse after watching the show. In response, she created the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004. Their mission is to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, support survivor’s healing and end [00:01:00] the violence together.

Today, I’m speaking with Joyful Heart’s director of policy and advocacy, Ilse Knecht. She has spent 20 years invested in victim advocacy and is a nationally recognized expert on the rape kit backlog. She leads the foundations and the backlog campaign, which is at the forefront of untested rape kits across the country. Previously, she was at the National Center for Victims of Crime, [00:01:30] where she created the DNA Resource Center and led efforts to reform policies and practices related to testing rape kits. Ilse, welcome to All Inclusive.

Ilse Knecht: Thank you so much for having me really, really grateful to be here.

Jay Ruderman: Thank you. So Ilse, walk us through what happens when someone has been sexually assaulted? What do they do? Do they go to the police? Do they show up at the hospital? Just in a general sense, what happens at that point?

Ilse Knecht: Well, survivors have many [00:02:00] options after a sexual assault, they will choose the path that’s best for them. So only about a quarter will ever report the assault to law enforcement and three quarters of them unfortunately, don’t report to law e

After 15 years of playing Detective (and now Sergeant) Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mariska Hargitay is finally stepping behind the camera. The actress is making her directorial debut with the March 19 episode, titled "Criminal Stories," which centers on the rape case of a young Muslim woman, which escalates to a hate crime.

"I'm thrilled to be directing," Hargitay said in a statement. "It's been a goal of mine for a long time, and it's quite an experience to see it realized. My respect for the process of making this show and telling these important stories deepens with every scene we shoot. I have always been so honored to work with this cast and crew, but never more so than now, as a director collaborating in a new way.'

Below, check out a slew of exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the Hargitay-helmed episode, which features Alec Baldwin as a renowned newspaper reporter doing an investigative piece on the Special Victims Unit who thinks the crime is a hoax. "I've watched Alec on screen for so long have always been in awe of his talent," Hargitay added. "Having the opportunity to tell this story with him, having him bring his experience, depth, and fierce commitment to his craft, honestly feels too good to be true."