Jillian Noel Hennessy

Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actor and a singer from Canada. She is best known for her character on Law & Order as Claire Kincaid, a US prosecutor, on Law & Order for three seasons. Crossing Jordan was six seasons. Jordan Cavanaugh, the main character in Crossing Jordan, lasted six seasons. She also appeared as acting in movies such as RoboCop 3 or Most Wanted as well as independent films Chutney Popcorn, which she co-directed. Hennessy was born and raised in Edmonton. John Hennessy, John's father, was a marketing and meat sales and marketing executive. The position required a lot of traveling and the family moved frequently. Maxine her secretary mother was the last to leave the family in 1982. Eleanor, Eleanor's paternal grandmother, took care of her daughter, who lived in Kitchener. John Paul Hennessy Jr. has a younger brother as well as Jacqueline is a twin sister. Jacqueline is host and journalist for a Canadian TV program. Hennessy is of Irish and French, Swedish, Italian, and Swedish roots from her father, and mostly Ukrainian Roma and Austrian heritage from her mother. After graduating from Grand River Collegiate Institute (both in Kitchener) She attended Stanley Park Senior Public School. She also worked in the Toronto subway. Hennessy and her sister were the first actors to be cast as twin call girls in 1988's Dead Ringers. According to Gillian Anderson (the actress who played the part), she was shortlisted for the role of Dana Scully in The X-Files. In 1993, Hennessy was signed by Dick Wolf as Claire Kincaid, assistant district attorney in the NBC crime drama Law & Order. The show ran for three seasons. She left the show in 1996.