Jill Hennessy

Her multi-ethnic heritage includes Irish, Italians, Swedishs, Frenchs, and Ukrainians. The twin sister of her, Jacqueline is a professional actor. As a child, Jill became fluent in several languages, including Italian, French and Spanish. She became interested in acting at the age of 12. In Toronto the city she was born, she began her career as an actress in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. She played an escort along with the twins of her. Later, she took improv classes at Second City under Deb Kimmet. A few years later, she made the move to New York and signed a contract as the Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid on the long running hit series, Law & Order. Over the 3 years she spent in New York, she worked on movies with a feature-length story, including RoboCop 3 (1993), Ron Howard's The Paper (1996) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). She was a part of a handful of forgettable films over the following several years before securing an acting role in the 1999 miniseries uremberg alongside Alec Baldwin. Autumn in New York followed, as did Exit Wounds. Her first lead role was on the crime drama NBC's Crossing Jordan. And in 2007, in recognition of her contributions to the series, she received a Gracie Allen as the "Outstanding Female Lead in a Drama Series". Her husband was another actor Paolo Mastropietro in 2000. They have two children. The couple was recognized on the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2007.