Kelli Giddish

 ( 1980 Births ) 

As a youth, Giddish performed at a community theater run by a local drama teacher, Yatesy Harvey, who was a friend of her mother. Giddish also participated in her sleepover . Of Harvey, Giddish has recalled, "She just inspired a fierce curiosity and very high standards of what acting was and how much dedication it took and rehearsal and we would do plays every night."

Giddish won a number of accolades as a teen. While attending Forsyth Central High School, she was a member of their championship softball team, and in 1998 she was the State Literary Champion for Girls Dramatic Interpretation.

She graduated from the University of Evansville in Indiana, where she majored in theater performance. The Giddish family was very supportive of her acting pursuits. Her parents drove to Indiana to see her perform in all of her productions.

She appeared in the thriller film Death in Love (2008), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She played the role of Courtney in the web series The Burg, credited as the first scripted web series. The same people responsible for The Burg also created All's Faire, in which Giddish played the role of Cindy.

Giddish, Nic Bishop, and Ravi Patel were cast in Fox's reincarnation drama pilot Past Life. The Warner Bros.-produced project revolved around past-life investigators. Giddish played a Ph.D. in psychology and cognitive research who believes in reincarnation. On May 18, 2009, Fox announced that it had ordered Past Life to series, airing midseason 2010 at 9:00 PM EST on Tuesdays. It premiered on February 9, 2010, but was canceled on February 18.

Giddish starred as the central character, U.S. Marshal Annie Frost, in the police procedural drama Chase, which premiered on NBC in autumn 2010. Giddish received rave reviews for her performances, but the show was pulled in early February 2011. On April 6, 2011, NBC decided to broadcast five unaired episodes of Chase on Saturday nights, with the first beginning on April 23, 2011.

It was announced on June 27, 2011, that Giddish would join the cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for its along with Cold Case Danny Pino coinciding with Christopher Meloni's departure from the series. Giddish told TV Guide during summer filming, "They've lost a family member with Chris Meloni leaving, but they've been very accepting of us. Amanda Rollins Rollins, is thrilled to be here working with these people, and so am I."

Giddish made her debut as Rollins in the 13th-season premiere, "", in which the character first works alongside Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). Giddish expressed confidence that viewers would warm up to Rollins and another new character, Nick Amaro (Pino), with time.

At the end of the series' Season 13, she said she and Pino received not only a "very warm welcome" from SVUs cast and crew, but saw their respective characters explored more than they could hope for in their first season. "They've given me a lot to work with — and I hope they give me more next season," says Giddish. "We're still playing 'musical chairs' in terms of partners, and that's a great way to go about exploring the different characters."

On April 16, 2020, Giddish's character was promoted to 2nd grade class detective, in "". Giddish's final episode as a regular cast member was season 24, episode 9 ("And a Trauma in a Pear Tree") in which Rollins married ADA Dominick Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino) and resigned from the Special Victims Unit to accept an offer to teach at Fordham University. She returned as a special guest star in season 24, episode 22 (), season 25, episode 1 ("Tunnel Blind") and season 25, episode 11 ("Prima Nocta"). She returned as a series regular for the 27th season which began airing September 2025.

In May 2018, Giddish appeared in the music video for “All Love Is Lost” by Body Count, Giddish's SVU co-star Ice-T's band, from their 2017 album Bloodlust with Max Cavalera from Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy as a special guest.

On November 7, 2021, Giddish married Beau Richards. In June 2023, she gave birth to her third son, the couple's first, Oldie. All of her pregnancies were written into .