12 Superstars Who Got Their Start on 'Law & Order': Adam Driver, Ellen Pompeo, Samuel L. Jackson and More

He’s been a Gucci, a Ferrari and an ultimate Star Wars bad guy … but Adam Driver got his “bad guy” chops playing a creepy lab tech (Law & Order) and sleazy stalker turned suspect (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

Playing an angst-ridden girl in “My So-Called Life” was no problem at all for Claire Danes — she got lots of practice portraying a troubled teen in the Big Apple.

Long before she even thought about winning her Best Supporting Oscar for I, Tonya, Allison Janney gave testimony in two murder cases — at least she avoided being the victim!

Sarah Paulson's first role as a young teen who claims to have an affair with a murdered mom’s new hubby led to American Gothic and roles in the American Horror Story franchise.

Before her dozens of movies and TV shows, Amanda Peet went The Whole Nine Yards in playing a gal who claims she was forced to participate in a crime spree.

Julia Roberts was a Pretty Woman, but she made a rare TV appearance with then Law & Order star boyfriend Benjamin Bratt as a party planner involved in the death of a powerful businessman.

Portraying the “best friend” is old hat for Leighton Meester, who was the BFF of a murder victim before her breakout role as best buddy to Blake Lively on Gossip Girl.

After portraying a teen who gets attacked at a construction site, Amanda Seyfried got to turn the tables as one of the Mean Girls, released the same year. From there, it was on to Mamma Mia! fame four years later in 2008.

Ellen Pompeo ended up as a hospitalized victim in both her appearances … she certainly knew her way around a hospital by the time she starred in Grey’s Anatomy.

Rather than playing a victim, criminal, witness or friend, Jennifer Garner had a different kind of guest star — a one-night-stand lover to Bratt’s married character!

Samuel L. Jackson had been kicking around Hollywood for nearly 20 years before playing a defense attorney defending a rapist … then came 1993’s Jurassic Park and Pulp Fiction in 1994 — and he shot to superstardom.

Cynthia Nixon played a previously assaulted woman who claims self-defense for shooting two men — eight years later she started on S-- and the City.