Jillian Noel Hennessy

Jillian Noel Hennessy (19 November 1975) is a Canadian singer and actor from Canada. Her most memorable roles include American TV's Law & Order where she was the prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons and Crossing Jordan for six. She also appeared in movies such as RoboCop 3 and Most Wanted as well as the independent films Chutney Popcorn and The Acting Class which is the latter of which she wrote and co-directed. Hennessy was born in Edmonton, Alberta. John Hennessy was her father. He was a meat marketer and an executive in sales and marketing. The job involved a lot of travel and led to frequent family moves. Maxine was her mother. She was secretary. Her daughter was abandoned by Eleanor, her paternal grandmother in Kitchener, Ontario. Her younger brother named John Paul "J.P." Hennessy, Jr., and an identical twin sister named Jacqueline, who is a magazine writer and TV host in Canada. Hennessy is of Irish, French and Swedish origin, and has Ukrainian Roma and Austrian ancestry. She graduated from Grand River Collegiate Institute and Stanley Park Senior Public School. Hennessy as well as her sibling were first actors when they appeared as 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 also appeared in the 1988 film Dead Ringers as twin call girls. Dick Wolf signed Hennessy in 1993 as Claire Kincaid, an assistant district attorney, on the NBC crime drama Law & Order. The role was played by her for three seasons before leaving the show in 1996.