Keke Palmer made social media waves during this year’s SAG Awards when she asked everyone in the audience to take a drink if they’d ever been on Law & Order. The joke played off the trope that everyone in Hollywood has appeared as an extra or guest on Law & Order at some point in their career. After all, the series’s combined 1200+ episodes across Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent has presented many opportunities for that.
Given that the Oscars are right around the corner, I decided to do a fun analysis on how true that trope really is. I scraped the cast list of every Law & Order episode from IMDb*, and compared it to every Oscars Nominee for Best Actor/Actress in a Leading/Supporting role since 2015.
*I analyzed Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Overall
Let’s start by looking at all nominees since 2015.
Since 2015, there have been 174 unique Oscars Nominees. 22 of them (12.6%) have appeared on Law & Order at some point.
This honestly felt a little low to me, but I think it’s because Oscars Nominees tend to be disproportionately older and/or international. Although it feels like Law & Order has been around forever, the series started in 1990. Older Oscars Nominees like Denzel Washington had already established themselves by then. They no longer needed the work provided by being an extra on the series. And international stars like Eddie Redmayne weren’t nearby to be cast as extras on these American shows.
Yearly Trend
There aren’t any strong yearly trends here, but this year, 20% of Oscars Nominees for Best Actor/Actress in a Leading/Supporting role have appeared on Law & Order!
This year’s Oscars Nominees who have appeared on Law & Order are:
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this post! Given the tumultuous month(s) we’ve had politically, I thought a few shorter, lighter posts could be helpful. Feel free to subscribe below if you want to read more!