Peter Gallagher Joins Law & Order: SVU—Find Out Who He's Bossing Around!

Covert Affairs star Gallagher will recur throughout the season

By Chris Harnick Sep 05, 2014 1:47 PMTags
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Peter Gallagher is joining the cast of Law & Order: SVU, E! News has confirmed. This is not a drill! Sandy Cohen and Olivia Benson, together for the first time!

OK, he's not playing Sandy Cohen, but he'll always be The O.C. patriarch to us. Gallagher is playing Deputy Chief William Dodds, described as the "charismatic" (duh, it's Peter Gallagher) and "tough-as-nails" boss of all special vicitims units in New York City. He's Benson's (Mariska Hargitay) boss and demands respect and hard work from the commanding officers that report to him.

"I've wanted to write for and work with Peter Gallagher since...forever. He's an actor's actor—deft with text and subtext; emotion and intellect," executive producer Warren Leight said in a statement. "Like everyone else in our cast, he's also a great singer. We're all thrilled that this long into the show's run, actors of his quality want to do an arc on SVU."

And now with that great singer remark we're dreaming of an SVU musical episode. Think about it. Gallagher currently stars in USA Network's Covert Affairs. His casting was first reported by TVLine.

A change happening behind the scenes of SVU: Hargitay is now a producer on the show after 16 years of playing Olivia Benson.

Law & Order: SVU season 16 premieres Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. on NBC.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)