Jillian Noel Hennessy

Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actor and a singer. Her most well-known role is on American TV's Law & Order where she was the prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons and Crossing Jordan for six. She has also appeared in movies such as RoboCop 3 and Most Wanted as well as the independent film Chutney Popcorn and The Acting Class The Acting Class, which she co-wrote and directed. Hennessy was brought up in Edmonton, Alberta. John Hennessy, her father was a meat-salesman, as well as a marketing/sales executive. His work required a lot of traveling, which meant numerous changes for the entire family. Maxine, her mother, was secretary. Her daughter was left behind by Eleanor Her paternal grandmother who lived in Kitchener, Ontario. Her younger brother named John Paul "J.P." Hennessy, Jr., and a identical twin sister, Jacqueline, who is a journalist for magazines and a television host in Canada. Hennessy is a mixture of Irish, French French, Swedish and Italian heritage from her father's side as well as predominantly Ukrainian Roma on the mother's. She attended Stanley Park Senior Public School and graduated from Grand River Collegiate Institute, both in Kitchener, Ontario, and utilized to be a busker on the Toronto subway. Hennessy as well as her sibling made their acting debut playing twin call girls in 1988's Dead Ringers. Gillian Anderson, Gillian Anderson's actress, has revealed that she was shortlisted for Dana Scully, The X-Files role. She was also in the Dead Ringers series in 1988 as twin call girls. Dick Wolf signed Hennessy in 1993 for the role of Claire Kincaid, an assistant district attorney, in the NBC crime drama Law & Order. The role ran for three seasons. She left the show in 1996.