Kelli Giddish Recalls How First Interaction With ‘SVU’ Costar Ice-T Set Their Relationship in Stone
What To Know
- Kelli Giddish and Ice-T formed a strong bond on her first day on Law & Order: SVU.
- Giddish debuted as Detective Amanda Rollins in Season 13, left the full-time cast in Season 24, and returned as a series regular in Season 27.
- Due to budget constraints in Season 27, Giddish and Ice-T had fewer scenes together.
Kelli Giddish has been tight with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit costar Ice-T from the jump, ever since he made an affirming comment about a hairy situation during her first day playing Detective Amanda Rollins on the NBC series.
As Giddish recounted to People in a new interview, she shot a death scene for a film in Los Angeles the night before she was scheduled to be fitted for her The Good Wife wardrobe and make her debut as Rollins in SVU in New York City. She only had time for a “trailer shower” before taking a red-eye flight across the country, and as it turned out, she didn’t get all the fake blood out of her hair.
“I show up to SVU, and they’re like, ‘Your hair is still pink.’ And I’m like, ‘Sorry. Think we can just put it up?’” she said with a laugh.
When Giddish met Ice-T on set, she joked about her pink-tinged locks. “I was like, ‘Hey, how are you? I thought I’d do this,’” she remembered. “And he goes, ‘You do you, boo.’ And I go, ‘Awesome. Love it.’ That relationship was set in stone right there: mutual respect and love.”
Heidi Gutman/NBC
Giddish showed up as Rollins in SVU’s Season 13 premiere, “Scorched Earth,” premiering on September 21, 2011 (though fans might recall she had a guest-starring role as another character years prior). She left the full-time cast in Season 24 but made her return as a series regular in the just-concluded 27th season.
That said, Giddish and Ice-T didn’t share the screen as much in Season 27 due to budgetary constraints, as the latter explained to TMZ in November 2025.
“It’s just basically business. They brought Kelli back, and at the end of the day, they couldn’t really keep both of us on full-time, as far as budget-wise,” Ice-T said at the time. “They said, ‘Ice, we’ll have you come in and out this year.’ That way we could bring — everybody wanted Kelli back. We’ve got new cops and stuff like that. But I’m not leaving the show. I’m more concerned with going to Season 28. So, this year, they said, ‘Ice, we’re going to work you a little less.’ Everything was cool with me. I understood.”
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Season 28, Fall 2026, NBC
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M
MORE FIN/ICE and ROLLINS
Ditch the “budget issues” excuse.
Network is multi billionaire status and this show is and has been Gold for them for decades
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A
maybe they shouldn't have hired too many new cops, and not know how to write for them, so they could all have scenes together. It worked so good SVU even when there were only the 4, Mariska, Kelli, Ice T and Peter in the squad room. (after season 17) New people never fitted much after, except Kat, I LOVED her. Graziano and Fazekas tho don't know how to write and introduce new people, one ignore them and the other focus ONLY on them. An in between showrunner is needed. Ice T and Kelli should work together so much more! they're the best!
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G
Honestly, I would rather see ICE than Kelli. She always seems like she just woke up and is running her lines. He always gives his lines an edge
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K
how could ice possibly work 'less'? dude is like 15 seconds per episode
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H
I think if you people haded put ICE T back in you would probably loose a lot of your black audience see T goes back a long ways back with his music I was having dinner with my black friends and one of them called and said girl I almost stopped watching law and ordered special victims united i say why then they said because They tried two ge rid of ICE T
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P
You go girl you do your on thing from one Georgia girl to another love it love the show seen every episode at least 3 times 🩷
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