‘Law & Order’: Kate Dixon Is Camryn Manheim’s 4th Role on the Show
NBC‘s flagship Law & Order returned for season 21, 12 years after season 20. Original cast members Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson welcomed new cast members Hugh Dancy, Jeffrey Donovan, Odelya Halevi, and Camryn Manheim. For Manheim, Kate Dixon is the fourth character she’s played on Law & Order, but the only recurring lead.
Manehim was on a Television Critics Association panel for Law & Order on Feb. 11. She discussed her previous Law & Order roles and joining the cast proper as Lt. Kate Dixon. Law & Order airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.
Camryn Manheim did three ‘Law & Order’ episodes before she played Kate Dixon
Manehim’s big break came in 1997 on The Practice. Before that, she was a working actor in New York. Law & Order was a major stop on the New York acting circuit until it ended in 2010, a stop Manheim made 1991, 1993 and 1994.
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“My first job out of NYU was on Law & Order back in 1991, 30 years ago,” Manheim said. “It’s hard to believe. I came back as three different characters on Law & Order through the years. It was a badge of honor to be able to be in an off Broadway play or a Broadway play and say that you’d been on Law & Order and then how many times you’d been on Law & Order. And I still have the programs that [say]: ‘I want to thank my mom,’ dah, dah, dah, ‘Law & Order three times.’”
Camryn Manheim’s roles on ‘Law & Order’
In 1991’s “Life Choices,” Manheim played a character named Leila in an episode about an abortion clinic bombing. 1993’s “Benevolence” cast Manheim as the character Martha Rollins in an episode about the murder of a deaf college student. In 1994’s “Nurture,” she played Beatrice Hines, the foster mother of a missing child.
“So this is a huge full circle for me to come back and play Kate Dixon,” Manheim said. “I do want to say that everything has been updated and very current in terms of story line except for the precinct. It is still that same old precinct. Nothing is updated. I mean, the phones are still from Edison’s time. So it just feels like you are home, you know, for me.”
Seeing it from the other side
After playing three standalone characters decades ago, Manheim appreciates being one of the main cops on Law & Order. She’s paired with Anderson and Donovan on the cases.
“I have to be with these two guys all day long, and their antics are insane,” Manheim said. “And I think the crew loves them. I feel like the luckiest person in show business right now, and I just can’t wait for the viewers to see it because we really are bringing back the same precinct, the same courts, the same amazing show with contemporary and really fascinating story lines that I’m really proud to be a part of.”
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