Law & Order Season 24 New Cast & Returning Character Guide

Law & Order season 26 features a small but significant cast of characters who drive the action in every episode. For almost a quarter of a century, this series has focused on the police and court aspects of the justice system. It is most closely associated with Sam Waterston, who is, unfortunately, one of the Law & Order cast members who is not returning for season 26. However, most of the cast in this series is returning, and one new cast member is being added..

Law & Order has always focused more on police procedural aspects than on character-driven stories; thus, the police and cops in the show are easier to replace when an actor leaves. It has had its share of cast turnover, most notably when Chris Noth left Law & Order over a contract dispute. In recent years, it has shifted to telling more personal stories than it has in the past, making it more important to pay attention to who is in the Law & Order cast.

Maura Tierney as Lieutenant Jessica Brady

Date of Birth: February 3, 1965

Actor: Maura Tierney was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and broke big in ER, where she played Dr. Abby Lockart from the sixth through fifteenth seasons. Tierney has had a long career with an impressive number of credits and recently appeared as Fiona McKee in Your Honor season 1 and Grace Poe in American Rust. Tierney also played Helen Solloway in The Affair, a long-running series about a novelist and a waitress that have an extramarital relationship.

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Character: Jessica Brady is the new head of the NYPD Homicide Department. Unlike Kate Dixon, she has little interest in developing a personal relationship with the detectives she supervises; her priority is closing cases as quickly as possible and pushing her detectives to do so whether or not it makes them hate her. Dixon’s abrupt departure and Brady’s business-like personality will cause her to clash with the detectives, especially Vince Riley.

Mehcad Brooks as Detective Jalen Shaw

Date of Birth: October 25, 1980

Actor: Mehcad Brooks was born in Austin, Texas and broke big in Desperate Housewives, where he played Matthew Applewhite, the son of Betty Applewhite who turned out to be a killer in season 2. Brooks’ other best-known role besides Jalen Shaw is Jimmy Olsen on Supergirl, which he played for six years. Brooks has appeared on all three Law & Order shows as Shaw, though he has not yet appeared on any of the other One Chicago shows.

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Character: Jalen Shaw is a former defense attorney who joined the Homicide Unit during Law & Order season 22. Shaw is keenly aware of racial bias in policing and is determined to make arrests by the book, often criticizing his partners for bending the rules and playing fast and loose with suspects’ civil rights. He unsuccessfully sued the department after two NYPD beat cops mistook him for a suspect because of his skin color and forced him onto the ground while he was on the way to a crime scene.

Reid Scott As Detective Vince Riley

Date of Birth: November 19, 1977

Actor: Reid Scott was born in Clifton Park, New York and broke big in Veep, where he played Dan Egan, a daytime personality on CBS News. Scott is also known for his work in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Gordon Ford and recently played Daniel in the Netflix film The Idea Of You. He has played Vince Riley on Law & Order since season 23, when he replaced Jeffrey Donovan’s Frank Cosgrove as one of the two main detectives.

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Character: Vince Riley has been somewhat of an enigma since arriving at the NYPD Homicide Unit. Riley is hot-tempered and Shaw often has to rein him in. He was close with Dixon and it was revealed in season 23 that he once got suspended for punching a cop that disrespected her. Thus, Riley will take Dixon’s exit from Law & Order hard and will have a difficult time getting along with her replacement, Jessica Brady.

Hugh Dancy As EADA Nolan Price

Date of Birth: June 19. 1975

Actor: Hugh Dancy was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and broke big to American audiences in Hannibal, where he played Will Graham, the lead investigator trying to catch the infamous cannibal. Dancy is a familiar face on American television despite being born and raised in the UK and has appeared on shows such as Homeland and The Good Fight. Dancy also played the role of Adam, the autistic main character in the romantic comedy of the same name, in 2009.

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Character: Nolan Price has been the EADA since the soft reboot began, working extensively with Law & Order’s Sam Waterston before he left the series. He is passionate about justice and willing to risk losing a case rather than plead out when he believes the defendant deserves significant jail time. Price has often butted heads with new DA Nicholas Baxter over the way he runs the DA’s office and Baxter sees him as arrogant and entitled, while Price believes Baxter puts politics over justice when making charging decisions.

Odelya Halevi as ADA Samantha Maroun

Date of Birth: February 12, 1987

Actor: Odelya Halevi was born in Rosh HaAyin, Israel, and her first big role was Good Trouble, where she was the original actress to play Angelica, Malika’s love interest. Halevi has guest starred in many shows, including a 2015 episode of The Bold And The Beautiful, an episode of the Macgayver reboot, and an episode of NCIS. She also played Shiruta in the film Black Adam, which is about a wrathful Egyptian god who escapes imprisonment after being entombed for 5,000 years.

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Character: Samantha Maroun is a young Assistant District Attorney who is especially passionate about cases involving women’s rights. Whie the actress who plays her is Israeli, Maroun is Lebanese, and her culture influences her decisions about cases. However, she is most affected by the trauma of her sister’s murder, as the killer was never caught and punished. She tends to be impulsive, partially because of this trauma, and often needs Price to rein her in when she’s upset about how a case is going.

Tony Goldwyn As District Attorney Nicholas Baxter

Date of Birth:May 20, 1960

Actor: Tony Goldwyn was born in Los Angeles, Californi, making his mark in the 1990 film Ghost, where he played antagonist Carl Bruner. Goldwyn is one of the best-known actors on Law & Order, with a career dating back to the early 1980s when he guest starred on an episode of the original Matlock with Andy Griffith. Goldwyn is best known for his roles as Fitzgerald Grant on Scandal and Bob Lipka on Hacks. He also played Gordon Gray in the critically acclaimed 2023 movie Oppenheimer.

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Character: Nicholas Baxter followed in the footsteps of Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy, which was a difficult task because of McCoy’s popularity and longevity. Baxter is more concerned with the department’s reputation than McCoy was, putting long-term goals such as demonstrating a commitment to justice over questions of winning any given case. However, he is often concerned about optics and relationships with judges in Law & Order, which puts him in conflict with Nolan Price.