Jillian Noel Hennessy

Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actor and singer from Canada. Her most well-known roles include American television's Law & Order where she was the prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons and Crossing Jordan for six. She has also appeared in movies such as RoboCop 3 and Most Wanted and also in the indie films Chutney Popcorn and The Acting Class, the latter of which she wrote and co-directed. Hennessy was born and raised in Edmonton. John Hennessy, John's father, was a marketing and meat sales/marketing executive. The position required a lot of travel and meant that the family moved frequently. Maxine the secretary mother of Maxine had to leave the family in 1982. Eleanor, Eleanor's paternal grandmother, looked after her daughter in Kitchener. John Paul Hennessy Jr. has a younger brother, as well as Jacqueline, a twin sister. Jacqueline is a journalist and host on an upcoming Canadian television show. Hennessy has Irish as well as French, Swedish, Italian and Swedish roots from her father. mostly Ukrainian Roma and Austrian heritage from her mother. 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 was the younger sister of her brother, who made their acting debut in 1988 as twin call-girls in the TV show Dead Ringers. She was short listed to play Dana Scully on The X-Files according to Gillian Anderson, the actress who eventually got the role.She made an appearance on Broadway in the musical Buddy the Musical - The Buddy Holly Story in 1990.In 1993, she was on the show as Dr. Marie Lazarus in RoboCop 3.In 1993, Dick Wolf signed Hennessy as an assistant district attorney Claire Kincaid in the NBC crime drama Law & Order. She played the character for three seasons before resigning the show in the year 1996.