Jill Hennessy

She is a native Edmontonian who has Irish, Italian and Swedish heritage, and also French, Ukrainian French and Swedish. Jacqueline is her twin sister, and is an actor. Jill was fluent in several languages as she grew up. They include Italian, French, and Spanish. She became interested in the acting world at age twelve. Her acting journey began in Toronto as part of David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers playing an escort along with the twins of her. Later, she took improv classes on Second City under Deb Kimmet. She was transferred back to New York two years later after which she signed a deal to portray an Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid in the hit longest-running drama Law & Order. During her three year run, she also spent time working in feature films like RoboCop 3 (1993), Ron Howard's The Paper (1994), and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). She worked in a few uninteresting films in the next several years before securing her a leading role in 1999's miniseries uremberg which was co-produced by Alec Baldwin. Autumn in New York followed, as did Exit Wounds. She was the main character of the NBC crime comedy Crossing Jordan in 2001. In 2007, she received the Gracie Allen Award for "Outstanding female actor in a drama" in appreciation of her work on the series. She married another actor, Paolo Mastropietro in 2000. They have two children. The couple was recognized on the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2007.