Christopher Meloni is best known for his long-running role in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) and its spin-off Law & Order: Organised Crime.
But his tough-guy persona belies the fact he is a loving family man who is an ardent supporter of the LGBTQ community and sufferers of Lyme disease, after a family member was struck down by the debilitating illness.
Meloni shares such a close relationship with his SVU co-star Mariska Hargitay many fans have wondered if the two are in fact an item.
READ MORE: How Mariska Hargitay overcame multiple traumas to help others
Early life
Christopher Meloni was born in Washington DC on April 2, 1961, to stay-at-home mum Cecile and Charles, an endocrinologist.
He was educated at St Stephen’s School in Virginia (now St Stephen’s & St Agnes School), where he was a quarterback on the football team. He then attended the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he first took acting classes.
After graduating, he moved to New York to study acting while reportedly working as a construction worker, bouncer, bartender and personal trainer.
Among his first roles were a 1988 episode of the TV series The Equalizer and the 1990 film, When Will I Be Loved?
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He appeared in 19 episodes of The Fanelli Boys, then voiced the role of Spike in the sitcom Dinosaurs. A plethora of movie and TV roles followed, including 1995 film 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, before he appeared in the TV series Oz.
Big break
But it was his next role that made him a star.
In 1999, six actors and actresses were shortlisted for starring roles in a Law and Order spinoff when Meloni and Mariska Hargitay were chosen to screen test together.
Hargitay later recalled she got chatting to Meloni moments before and hoped they would be matched up.
“I was like, ‘If they match me with him, this is my role,” she said, adding she knew he was right for the part due to his “energy, confidence, power” and “the way he looked.”
They were still chatting when they walked into the room.
“[Chris] was telling me a story as we walked into the network executive screen test, and he finished his story,” she said.
“He was the guy. I just knew he was the guy from reading the script. He was New York, this dark horse, but funny, light. I’m so grateful that those magical stars collided.
“It was just like that from the minute one. It was just off and running.”
Meloni was cast as Detective Elliot Stabler opposite and Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson in Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit.
The same year he started filming SVU, Meloni won a co-starring role in the film Runaway Bride starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.
There was much hype surrounding the film’s release, because Julia Roberts was then the rom-com queen and was starring opposite her Pretty Woman co-star Gere.
Meloni was cast as Bob Kelly, Roberts’ character Maggie’s fiance and perpetually positive high school football coach.
He reflected on the role in an interview with People earlier this year to mark the 25-year anniversary of the film’s 1999 release.
He said of working with Roberts and Gere, “I just remember fighting not to be overwhelmed, so happy to be given this opportunity.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do,’ because it was a big Hollywood comedy.
“The comedy of it, I felt like I kept having to make it real but make it lighthearted, but the circumstances were real, had to have meaning… it was a really delicate dance for me.”
Other projects
Meloni continued to star in SUV until 2011 when he left after his contract negotiations broke down.
The following year he appeared in five episodes of TV series True Blood and took on a host of other TV and film roles.
READ MORE: The tragic family history of Law & Order’s Mariska Hargitay
In 2021, he was cast in another Law and Order spinoff, Organised Crime, before returning to SUV in 2020 for a cross-over episode which dealt with the death of his character’s wife.
He has since become a series’ regular again, while also juggling his role in Organised Crime, and new storylines have centred on the will-they-won’t they relationship of his and Olivia Benson’s character.
‘Partners for life’
In real life, Meloni and Hargitay share a special relationship, which confused fans over the years who wrongly believed the two were together in real life.
Hargitay told TV Insider in 2018, “From the second we met, bells went off. We knew we were going to be a huge force in each other’s lives. He was intense and mercurial, but also fun.”
Hargitay admitted she was “devastated” when Meloni left the show, but he said the two made sure they “stayed connected.”
Meloni told Entertainment Tonight in 2020, “We just pick it up right where we left off and we’ve said it’s like we don’t have this relationship with anyone else… It’s unique, it’s full of laughter, she’s full of love.
“We just kind of fall seamlessly into that place every time we see each other.”
Now, 25 years after they first met and despite both being happily married to other people – Hargitay is married to lawyer-turned-actor Peter Hermann, whom she met on the show – they make no secret of the fact they are PFLs (Partners For Life), and regularly use the hashtag on their social media posts with each other.
Earlier this year, Hargitay reflected on their 25-year friendship during an interview with People.
“We met and the rest is history. It’s iconic. [He’s] somebody who’s changed my life so much, somebody I love,” she said.
They are so close, Hargitay is godmother to Meloni’s daughter, who served as flower girl when Hargitay married her husband.
Real-life wife
Meloni, now 63, is married to production designer turned artist and art director Sherman Williams.
The pair first met in the 1980s on the set of a TV show they were both working on.
Meloni recalled in a 2006 interview with YourTango that he tried flirting with the woman with the short blonde hair who rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to work but found out she had a boyfriend.
He ran into the “cool, funny, sexy” woman twice more, in LA and New York, but it was years later before they finally got together.
They dated for six months before they moved in together and married four years. Their mediaeval-themed wedding was held on a beach in Malibu on July 1, 1995.
They eventually settled in New York City, and have two children, Sophia, and son, Dante.
He told YourTango the long, hard days on set were worth it to provide for his family.
“What matters is waiting for him at home. I love my children beyond all reason. They’re my joy, even when they’re wild with kid energy.”
To mark Williams’ 64th birthday this year, Meloni shared several posts on Instagram, including one “to celebrate the grandeur, beauty, and intelligence that is @sherman.meloni.”
Lyme disease
After years of supporting the LGBTQ community, Meloni turned his attention to Lyme disease after family members were struck down with the tick-borne illness.
He told People in 2023, “My family was affected by this disease in a very dramatic way. And it was a whole big learning curve because it took us two years to get the correct diagnoses. It was pretty heartbreaking.”
While he did not say who was affected, he paid tribute to his “tenacious wife” during a 2023 event for the Global Lyme Alliance (GLA).
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