Jillian Noel Hennessy

Jillian Noel Hennessy (19 November 1975) is a Canadian actor and singer. Her most well-known work is her roles on the American television show Law & Order, on which she played the prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons, and Crossing Jordan, on which she played the lead character, Jordan Cavanaugh, for six seasons. She also appeared as an actress in films like RoboCop 3: Most Wanted and the indie films Chutney Popcorn (which she also co-directed) and The Acting Class (which was written by her). Hennessy was raised in Edmonton, Alberta. Her father, John Hennessy, was an animal salesman and a sales/marketing executive, a job that required considerable travel and caused frequent changes for the family. Her mother, Maxine, a secretary was a divorcee in 1982, leaving her daughter partially raised by her paternal grandmother, Eleanor and her family in Kitchener, Ontario. John Paul Hennessy Jr. has a younger brother as well as Jacqueline, a twin sister. Jacqueline works as a journalist and host on the Canadian television program. Hennessy is of Irish, French and Swedish descent, as well as Ukrainian Roma and Austrian ancestry. She attended Stanley Park Senior Public School. Grand River Collegiate Institute was her graduation. She would busk in Toronto's subway. Hennessy and her sister were among the first actors to be cast as twin call girls on 1988's Dead Ringers. According to Gillian Anderson (the actress who got the role) She was selected for Dana Scully's role on The X-Files. In 1993, Hennessy was signed by Dick Wolf as Claire Kincaid, assistant district attorney in the NBC crime drama Law & Order. She played the role for three seasons and then quit the show in 1996.