Jillian Noel Hennessy

Jillian Noel Hennessy, born November 25 in 1968 is a Canadian actress from Canada. Her most notable roles include those on American TV's Law & Order where she was the prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons and Crossing Jordan for six. She has also been an actress in films like RoboCop 3: Most Wanted and the indie films Chutney Popcorn (which she also co-directed) and The Acting Class (which was written by her). Hennessy was brought up in Edmonton, Alberta. Her father, John Hennessy, was an animal salesman and a executive in sales and marketing, a position that required extensive travel and resulted in frequent moves for the family. Her mother, Maxine, a secretary who left the family in 1982 leaving her daughter to be raised by her maternal grandmother, Eleanor, located in Kitchener, Ontario. John Paul Hennessy Jr. is her younger brother. Jacqueline Hennessy is her identical twin sister. Jacqueline is a journalist in Canada. Hennessy has Irish and French, Swedish, Italian, and Swedish roots from her father. mostly Ukrainian Roma and Austrian heritage from her mother. She went to Stanley Park Senior Public School and graduated from Grand River Collegiate Institute, both of which are located in Kitchener, Ontario, and utilized to be a busker 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 got the role) She was selected for Dana Scully's role on The X-Files. In 1993, Hennessy was signed by Dick Wolf as Claire Kincaid an assistant district attorney on the NBC crime drama Law & Order. The role lasted three seasons. The show ended following the year 1996.