Melissa Sagemiller

Melissa Sagemiller (born June 1, 1974) is an American television and film actress. She is known for her performances in films Get Over It (2001), Soul Survivors (2001), Sorority Boys (2002), The Clearing (2004), The Guardian (2006) and Mr. Woodcock (2007). Sagemiller also starred in television dramas Sleeper Cell (2005-06), and Raising the Bar (2008-09), and from 2010 to 2011 had the recurring role as A.D.A. Gillian Hardwicke in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Sagemiller was born in Washington, D.C. to a political activist mother and a professional American football player father, who played in the NFL for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. She attended Georgetown Day School. Her entry into the performing arts was at age 3 when she began studying tap dance, ballet, jazz dance and modern dance. She made her stage debut in To Kill a Mockingbird when she was 9 years old, and soon after she became a regular on her local stage. At 14, however, acting took a backseat to modeling after Sagemiller was scouted by Eileen Ford in a jewelry shop. She eventually left modeling to take an undergraduate degree in Art History at the University of Virginia.