‘Law and Order’ Star Camryn Manheim to Leave Show After Season 23 Finale
Camryn Manheim will leave Law & Order following the season 23 finale.
Manheim, 63, portrays Lieutenant Kate Dixon, joined the cast when NBC revived the series in 2021. The May 16 season finale will be her 48th and final episode.
“I thank Camryn for her three wonderful seasons helping us relaunch Law & Order,” creator Dick Wolf said in a statement on Friday, May 10. “She is a class act, and I wish her nothing but the best for her next chapter.”
Though Manheim became known on the series for playing Dixon, the commanding officer of the Manhattan North Homicide Squad, that wasn’t actually her first character in the franchise. She appeared in a guest spot during the show’s first season in 1991 and returned playing other characters in 1993 and 1994.
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“I had the most incredible experience being a part of the Law & Order Universe, and more importantly the Wolfpack,” Manheim wrote via Instagram on Friday. “I’m so thankful for the three wonderful seasons that I spent with this wildly talented cast of merry pranksters. Mehcad Brooks, Reid Scott, Connie Shi, Anthony Anderson, Jeffrey Donovan, Hugh Dancy, Odelya Halevi, Tony Goldwyn and Sam Waterston. Not to mention the stellar guest stars that came in and out of the studio doors.”
Manheim’s departure follows that of Waterston, who played District Attorney Jack McCoy in 405 episodes from 1994 to 2024. His final appearance came in February, and Goldwyn, 63, has since replaced him, playing new DA Nick Baxter.
“Greetings, you wonderful people. It’s a pleasure to talk directly like this to the backbone of Law & Order’s absolutely amazing audience,” Waterston, 83, told The Hollywood Reporter at the time of his departure. “The time has come for me to move on and take Jack McCoy with me. There’s sadness in leaving, but I’m just too curious about what’s next. An actor doesn’t want to let himself get too comfortable. I’m more grateful to you than I can say.”
Manheim and Waterston’s exits come on the heels of Donovan, who played Detective Frank Cosgrove, leaving the show last season. In season 21, Anderson left, with his character being replaced by Brooks.
When Manheim first joined the cast as a series regular during Law & Order’s revival, she came in to replace S. Epatha Merkerson. Merkerson, 71, played Lieutenant Anita Van Buren from 1993 to 2010, when the show was originally canceled.
Law & Order has already been renewed for a 24th season amid a 56 percent viewership bump from season 22.
