Jillian Noel Hennessy

Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25 on the 25th of November, 1968) is a Canadian actress and singer from Canada. She is best known for her roles in the American television series Law & Order, on which she played prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons as well as Crossing Jordan, on which she was the main character, Jordan Cavanaugh, for six seasons. She has also been an actress in films such RoboCop 3: Most Wanted, as well the independent film Chutney Popcorn (which she also co-directed) and The Acting Class (which was written by her). Hennessy was born in Edmonton, Alberta. Her father, John Hennessy, was a meat salesman and sales/marketing executive. It was a job which required a lot of travel, and resulted in frequent moves for the entire family. The mother of her child, Maxine, a secretary, left the family in 1982 leaving her daughter to be taken care of by her maternal grandmother, Eleanor, in Kitchener, Ontario. John Paul Hennessy Jr. has a younger brother, as well as Jacqueline, a twin sister. Jacqueline is a journalist and host on the Canadian television program. Hennessy is of Irish, French, Swedish and Italian roots from her father's side and mainly Ukrainian Roma, as well as Austrian, ancestry on her mother's. She was educated at Stanley Park Senior Public School and graduated from Grand River Collegiate Institute in Kitchener, Ontario and busked in the Toronto subway. Hennessy and her sister made their acting debut playing 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 was also in 1988's Dead Ringers as twin call girls. Dick Wolf signed Hennessy in 1993 for the role of Claire Kincaid, an assistant district attorney in the NBC crime drama Law & Order. The role lasted for three seasons, before being removed from the show as an actor in 1996.