PRLog (Press Release) –
May 03, 2008 – Mariska Magdolina Hargitay is a Golden Globe- and Emmy Award- winning American actress, best known for her role as Det. Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Hargitay speaks Hungarian, French and Italian as well as English. On August 28, 2004, in Santa Barbara, California, she married Peter Hermann, an actor and writer who has often appeared on SVU as Defense Attorney Trevor Langan. On June 28, 2006, Hargitay gave birth to August Miklos Friedrich Hermann, by caesarean section. During the last months of her pregnancy, she took maternity leave from SVU, and was temporarily replaced by Connie Nielsen.
Upon winning her Emmy on August 27, 2006, Hargitay made a point of thanking her father for everything he had done for her in her life. Just 17 days later, on September 14, 2006, her father died from multiple myeloma in Los Angeles, California, aged 80.
Hargitay co-founded the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization that provides support to women who have been sexually assaulted. The Foundation is a proponent of the idea that swimming with dolphins promotes healing after major psychological traumas such as rape, and has provided this opportunity for many victims.
Hargitay also has worked with the Mount Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention program; NBC's “The More You Know” campaign; Safe Horizon; Santa Monica Rape Crisis Treatment Center; Project ALS; Girl Scouts of the USA; and the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness. She appeared with her baby, August, in a Got Milk? ad in January 2007.
A new website for Mariska Hargitay is now available at www.mariskahargitay.info, this website feature her news, blog, chat, forum , video and photos.
