"Law and Order: SVU" was recently renewed for a 20th season — it shares this record number with "Gunsmoke." With no signs of slowing down, the detectives of the Special Victims Unit are set to break this record next year.
Over the past two decades, hundreds of actors have made their way onto "SVU," but with 429 episodes and counting, we understand if you can't remember every famous face that's appeared on the show.
From Ludacris to Robin Williams, the guest stars of "SVU" vary greatly. Keep scrolling to take a trip down memory lane and catch up with 50 of the most famous celebrities to have appeared on "Law and Order: SVU."
Warning: Spoilers ahead for those who haven't watched all 19 seasons
Bradley Cooper appeared in both episodes of a season six "SVU" and "Trial by Jury" crossover.
Four years before his big break starring in "The Hangover," Cooper appeared as a shady lawyer connected to a murder victim found with a wad of cash stuffed in her mouth — the money was traced back to Cooper's character, Jason Whitaker.
Zoe Saldana's first acting credit was on the original "Law & Order" in 1999. Five years later she played Gabrielle Vega, the daughter of a murder suspect, on "SVU."
Saldana's character tried to convince the team that her father, who was convicted for murder when he was 19, was reformed. She believed he was innocent, while the detectives were dubious.
Fresh off his stint on "Gilmore Girls," Milo Ventimiglia appeared as an angry teen who put his stepfather behind bars for allegedly molesting him.
In typical "SVU" fashion, the case isn't as simple as it appears. Turns out Lee Healy (Ventimiglia) wasn't actually molested by his stepfather, but involved in an incestuous relationship with his cousin.
Brooke Shields played Sheila Porter in five episodes. Porter is the biological grandmother of Benson's son, Noah.
Shields appeared in the most recent season of "SVU" as the biological grandmother of Benson's son Noah, whose mother Ellie (her daughter) was brutally murdered in gang-related violence.
While claiming to simply want to connect with her grandson, she ultimately tried to kidnap him (unsuccessfully).
Robin Williams played against his typical comedic persona when he appeared as anti-authoritarian activist Merritt Rook.
Rook believed that the general public were mindless sheep bowing to authority figures. When his pregnant wife and their unborn child die, he concocts a twisted plan to challenge authority that involves kidnapping Benson.
The episode, which happened to be the show's 200th, is a classic "ripped from the headlines" story. Part of Rook's crimes included pretending to be a cop and forcing a manager at a fast food restaurant to strip-search an employee — this actually happened. The perpetrator was sentenced to five years in prison.
Acting legend Patti LuPone portrayed power-hungry manager Lydia Lebasi.
LuPone's character is a powerful Hollywood agent that would do anything to protect her clients — including stuffing a 15-year-old girl into a suitcase and leaving her for dead.
"Supergirl" actor and Broadway star Jeremy Jordan appeared in the same episode, as a client of Lebasi's.
Jordan's character was the last person to see the girl his agent Lydia Lebasi (Patti LuPone) stuffed into a suitcase alive.
John Stamos appeared as a slimy lawyer who was revealed to to have fathered at least 47 children, making him a "reproductive abuser."
Ken Turner (Stamos) is a prominent lawyer with a fiancée and newly adopted baby.
However, it turns out that Turner is actually the adopted baby's biological father, and that he's fathered at least 47 children, making him a "reproductive abuser."
Stamos' "Full House" co-star Bob Saget has also appeared on "SVU."
Saget plays a jealous husband involved in a love square — his wife Naomi is cheating on him with Wesley, who is married to a woman named Danielle. When Danielle is found dead in Central Park, the detectives suspect Wesley, though Glenn (played by Saget) later confesses.
Country singer Miranda Lambert played an aspiring actress and rape victim in a season 13 episode.
Lacey Ford, played by Lambert, is a rape victim who was assaulted by a powerful TV producer (also a serial rapist).
However, she claims that her encounter was consensual, mostly because she is concerned with what would happen to the TV show she auditioned for if the producer was put in jail.
Shondaland vet Kate Burton played office bully Annette Cole, who was indirectly responsible for the death of the co-founder of her company.
Cole is a woman with a mean streak who created a work environment so poisonous that it leads to the murder of her company's co-founder.
Bradley Whitford portrayed a prolific film director who is accused of molesting his daughter.
The similarities between this case and the alleged crimes of Woody Allen and Roman Polanski are too many to be a coincidence — and "SVU" has a tendency to take storylines straight from the news.
Whitford's character, Frank Maddox, is a prolific film director who is accused of molesting his young daughter, though he claims that his ex-wife Catherine is behind it all.
While the situation doesn't exactly parallel the situation between Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, and their daughter Dylan (Allen is currently in a relationship with his ex-girlfriend Farrow's daughter), it's clear that Maddox is supposed to be Allen. The episode takes a Polanski-esque turn when Maddox flees to France while maintaining his innocence, much like Polanski, who fled to Switzerland after being accused of statutory rape.
"Modern Family" star Ty Burrell appeared in an early episode as a lawyer determined to send a serial killer to his death.
Burrell plays a lawyer trying to get a serial killer sentenced to death. While the SVU team wants to postpone the killer's execution to determine if he was responsible for another murder, Alan Messinger (Burrell) isn't having it.
"Sex and the City's" Cynthia Nixon won an Emmy for her role as Janis in the season nine premiere.
Janis, who suffers from multiple personality disorder, and her daughter April were reported missing, though Janis was later found on a park bench with no memory of her daughter.
Nixon played five distinct personalities in the episode, earning her an Emmy in 2008.
Laverne Cox's first TV role was on an episode of "SVU" in which she played Candace, the manager of a gym employing a murder suspect.
"Orange is the New Black" breakout star Laverne Cox only appears in one scene, where she tells Benson and Stabler that their suspect is an employee at her gym.
Henry Winkler played a con-man who married a woman for her money.
The logistics of the case are confusing, but Winkler plays a man who married a rich woman for her money, which he steals from her little by little before bludgeoning her and trying to frame someone else.
Kate Mara's first role ever was on the original "Law & Order" in 1999. Four years later she returned to the franchise as a gymnast named Lori.
At first, Lori appears to be a normal teen with a competitive streak, but it turns out that she killed a fellow gymnast in a jealous rage.
Jesse McCartney also had his first acting role on "Law & Order," in 2000. He appeared on "SVU" eight years later.
Based on the news of a pregnancy pact between teenagers in Gloucester, MA, this episode incorporates the "SVU" mainstays of potential rape and murder.
McCartney played Max Matarazzo, the boyfriend (but not baby daddy) of one of the pregnant girls, who admits to strangling his girlfriend in a rage and then staging it to look like a suicide.
Alec Baldwin played a journalist dubious about a victim's claim of having experienced a hate crime.
Baldwin's character Jimmy MacArthur is a journalist who has been given full access to the Special Victims Unit by the NYPD in order to write an article.
He initially publishes a scathing article claiming that a woman lied about being the victim of a hate crime — which she was — but writes another one supporting her when it turns out that she wasn't lying about getting raped.
Sarah Hyland has appeared twice on "SVU." She's also appeared on the original "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Trial by Jury."
The "Modern Family" star is no stranger to the criminal justice system — she has four episodes across three "Law and Order" shows under her belt, playing everything from the child of a man falsely accused of molesting his other daughter to a murderous roommate.
Viola Davis has appeared in seven episodes across five years as attorney Donna Emmett.
Emmett has gone up against the SVU multiple times throughout the show — perhaps Davis' experience as a lawyer on "SVU" prepared her for her Emmy-winning role as Annalise Keating on "How to Get Away with Murder."
"Gilmore Girls'" Kelly Bishop has appeared in three episodes as two different characters.
In her first appearance, the "Gilmore Girls" actress plays an unnamed registrar employee in the show's first season. She has a much more substantial role nine years later as lawyer Julia Zimmer.
Zimmer featured in two episodes in the show's 10th season before meeting her untimely demise — she was murdered by a former client.
Bishop's TV daughter-in-law Sutton Foster (they starred together in "Bunheads") also guest-starred as an assistant to the leader of a lesbian rights group called LesBeStrong.
Foster, who currently stars on "Younger" with recurring "SVU" guest-star Peter Hermann, plays a woman named Rosemary who becomes the latest victim in a string of hate crimes against lesbians.
The leader of LesBestrong was played by none other than comedian Kathy Griffin, whose character is forced to reveal the truth about her sexuality.
Griffin plays Babs Duffy, the leader of a lesbian rights group called LesBeStrong that accuses the SVU team of homophobia.
Eventually, Duffy is outed as bisexual, which she was worried would be a problem considering her entire platform was based on her being a lesbian.
Sutton Foster's "Younger" co-star Hilary Duff shed her Disney image when she played a young mother accused of murdering her daughter.
Duff played Ashlee Walker, a young woman who was accused by her own mother of murdering her daughter, Sierra. It was revealed throughout the episode that Walker had indeed buried her daughter, but wasn't guilty of her death — Sierra had died of the measles.
The case combined the public health crisis of anti-vaxxers with the highly publicized and controversial murder trial of Casey Anthony.
Amanda Seyfried played a young woman found beaten and duct-taped underneath a park bench who changed the story of what happened to her multiple times.
Seyfriend plays Tandi McCain, who claims she's been attacked by a group of uniformed men, but later changes her story to tell the truth: she was raped by her stepfather's boss, but he needed to keep the job in order to keep his health insurance.
Tennis icon Serena Williams played a college basketball player named Chloe, who was the prime suspect in the murder of a frat boy.
Chloe (Williams) is the prime suspect in the murder of Tyler Henry, a fellow student who posted videos of her stripping on his website, until her alibi proves that she was at an away game the night of the murder.
Elizabeth Banks played a woman who was forced to do porn in order to pay for her daughter's medical bills.
When her producer turns up dead, her husband becomes the prime suspect.
However, she eventually confesses to killing the producer, claiming that he was holding her back from becoming more successful.
Her husband was played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who is better known as "Saved by the Bell's " Zack Morris.
The episode begins with Gosselaar's character being shot and sexually assaulted outside of a gay club. He is the prime suspect in the death of his wife's producer, before she confessed.
Elliott Gould played an English professor who admitted to having sexual relations with his students, claiming they were consensual.
Gould's character, Walter Thompkins, comes forward about his sexual relationships with students because he fears that they might have contributed to a toxic environment that condones sexual abuse of minors. However, he maintains that all of his relationships were consensual.
Whoopi Goldberg played an overworked employee of the Department of Child Services whose neglect led to the death of a child.
Janette Moore (played by Goldberg), who works for the Department of Child Services, had her employees fabricate records of home visits to help with their heavy caseloads — this led to the preventable death of a young girl who was being abused by her family.
Comedy legend Martin Short played an alleged psychic with a dark compulsion.
Short claims to be a psychic that knows details about the death of a young girl named Kaley. However, it turns out that he's a rapist that preys on virgins with the help of his wife.
Fred Savage played an accused rapist named Michael Gardner whose legal knowledge allowed him to almost get off scot-free.
Banishing viewers' fond memories of Kevin in "The Wonder Years," Savage appears as a cunning rapist that scares his victims into not testifying, and outwits the DA at every turn.
Sarah Paulson appeared as a manipulative heiress named Anne Gillette, who was the prime suspect in the murder of her parents.
Gillette hit each of the investigators where it hurt; she threatened Stabler's family and insulted Detective Ramsey's mother.
She was eventually brought down by Sergeant Fin Tutuola, whom she didn't know was with the SVU.
Before becoming a zombie killer on "The Walking Dead," Norman Reedus played a rock star with negative views on psychology.
Reedus plays a famous rock-star who convinces one of his fans to stop taking her bipolar medication after she drives into a crowd, killing multiple people.
On the stand, he admits to not believing in psychology and medication because he had been involuntarily committed after a suicide attempt.
Pedro Pascal played a corrupt ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) agent who sold someone their murder weapon.
Special Agent Greer (Pascal) sells a gun to a man named Eddie Skinner, who uses it to murder a woman named Annette Fox, who was scheduled to testify at a rape trial.
Four months before starring on "Girls," Adam Driver appeared as an IT expert obsessed with a rape victim.
Driver plays Jason Roberts, an IT whiz obsessed with a rape victim — he even had a live feed of her apartment, though he claims he had nothing to do with her rape. He is eventually cleared, and even helps find the perpetrator.
Harry Hamlin has appeared in three separate "Law & Order" shows, including a two-episode stint on "SVU."
Hamlin's role as Deputy Chief Charles Patton was pivotal for "SVU." His appearance finally explained why Detective Amanda Rollins left Atlanta: he forced her to have sex with him to get her sister off the hook for check fraud.
He admits to raping another woman, his newest protegé, and pleads guilty for his crimes.
Lynda Carter played a woman that committed crimes with her daughter in a crossover arc between "SVU" and "Law & Order."
Lorraine Dillon (Carter) is part of a mother-daughter criminal duo who is eventually brought down in the "SVU" episode "Design," and the "Law & Order" episode "Flaw."
Melissa Joan Hart put all thoughts of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" out of viewers' heads when she guest-starred as a teacher who claimed she was raped by one of her students.
Hart plays Sarah Trent, a teacher who had sex with one of her students, Shane. Shane contracts gonorrhea and claims he got it from her, but in return she accuses him of rape.
Child star Iain Armitage had his first ever role on "SVU" as a precocious little boy who was kidnapped by his nanny.
Before stealing scenes in "Big Little Lies" and "Young Sheldon," Armitage played a young boy named Theo who has a neglectful mother. Theo is kidnapped by his nanny, whom he actually prefers to his mother.
Just months after the series finale of "Ghost Whisperer," Jennifer Love Hewitt played a traumatized woman who was raped by the same man four times over the course of 15 years.
Vicki Sayers (Hewitt) moved across the country multiple times to escape her rapist, but he keeps finding her.
1990s heartthrob Luke Perry appeared in the season 10 premiere as a rapist.
Perry's character Noah is especially twisted: he was able to get one of his rape victims to unknowingly marry him. He's later arrested when another victim identifies his voice.
Ludacris had a two-episode arc in seasons seven and eight in which he plays a rapist and murderer intent on proving corruption within the SVU.
Ludacris plays Darius Parker, a man whose life spirals out of control when he finds out he's the product of incest, as his father is also his grandfather. He becomes a rapist and murderer obsessed with proving that the detectives at SVU are corrupt.
"The Vampire Diaries" star Ian Somerhalder appeared as Charlie Baker, a seemingly normal man with violent tendencies.
Charlie originally frames his brother Billy for his crimes (rape and murder), but is eventually caught when an ex-girlfriend reveals that he demanded a threesome with his brother, which turned into Charlie raping Billy.
"Grey's Anatomy's" Chandra Wilson appeared in two different episodes three years apart.
Wilson's first role was that of a nurse, but she got more screen time the second time around, as an FBI expert who figures out that a kidnapper and rapist manipulated a phone company's switchboard so that his victim was unable to be traced via 911.
Comedian Brad Garrett appeared in two episodes as a corrections officer accused of sexually assaulting female inmates.
Gary Munson (Garrett) is a corrupt corrections officer who repeatedly rapes his inmates. As his lies unravel, he becomes desperate and takes his wife and Sergeant Mike Dodds hostage.
Munson became one of the show's most hated villains when he fatally shoots Dodds during the hostage situation.
"The Office's" Rainn Wilson appeared as an unnamed janitor in a season four episode.
Wilson only has a couple of lines as a janitor in this episode about the rape of a comatose patient.
Hayden Panettiere first appeared as a young girl in season two, and four years later returned as a teenager.
In "Abuse," Panettiere plays a little girl with suspicious injuries, though her parents are cleared of any wrongdoing.
In "Hooked," she portrays a teenager who prostitutes herself at the mall along with a friend, and ends up killing a doctor who recorded their threesome.
"Will and Grace's" Debra Messing played a "Nancy Grace"-esque character who was obsessed with catching predators after the disappearance of her own sister when they were both kids.
Messing's character Alicia Harding begins the episode by taking down a child predator, but eventually becomes the target of a stalker.
Sign up here to get INSIDER's favorite stories straight to your inbox.
Read the original article on INSIDER. Copyright 2018.Follow INSIDER on Facebook.
Follow INSIDER on Twitter.ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonytrdZmpquclad6tMLUZpqepJWXv6rA2GaamqWVpMBufo9qb2Zt