Jill Hennessy

Her family is from Edmonton, a city and has a mixture of Irish, Italian and Swedish heritage, and also French, Ukrainian, French, and Swedish. The twin sister of her, Jacqueline is a professional actress. Growing up, Jill became fluent in several languages, including Italian, French and Spanish. When she was 12, she began to become intrigued by acting. When she was in Toronto she started her professional career as an actor in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. She played an escort alongside the twins of her. She then studied improv comedy on Second City under Deb Kimmet. After a few years, she made the move back to New York and signed a contract as Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid on the long running hit series, Law & Order. In the time she spent in New York and worked on several film projects that featured feature actors like RoboCop 3 (1993), Ron Howard's The Paper (1996) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Following that she was offered roles in an assortment of uninteresting films. However, in 1999 she landed a starring position in the miniseries uremberg together with Alec Baldwin. Major roles in productions like Autumn in New York and Exit Wounds followed. In 2001 she was cast in leading roles in the crime drama on NBC Crossing Jordan and in 2007, she won the Gracie Allen award as "Outstanding Female Actress in an Drama Series" in recognition of her performance in the series. In 2000 she married her co-star Paolo Mastropietro. They have two children together. In 2007, she was awarded an honorary place in Canada's Walk of Fame.