07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Law & Order: SVU' has huge cast shakeup as 2 actors abruptly exit
Olivia Benson's elite squad is losing two of their own.
Octavio Pisano, who portrays Detective Joe Velasco, and Juliana Martinez, who is Detective Kate Silva on 'Law & Order: SVU,' are exiting the NBC series at the end of Season 26.
Pisano, 38, joined the drama during Season 23 as a former undercover agent turned Special Victims Unit detective.
8 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' – Season 26.
Peter Kramer/NBC
8 Octavio Pisano as Detective Joe Velasco.
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Martinez, 34, only joined the cast during Season 26 as a former Brooklyn Homicide Unit detective who transferred over to the 16th Precinct.
Neither have yet to publicly comment on the news.
Martinez, however, did take to Instagram on April 17 to share photos of the cast.
'I hope you tuned into Law & Order Crossover and Organized Crime tonight!! It's also a SZN wrap on SVU. ♥️ Thankful to everyone who has tuned in and this whole, wonderful cast tonight,' she wrote. 'Y'all ruled my world x.'
8 Juliana Aidén Martinez as Det. Kate Silva.
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
8 Octavio Pisano on 'Law & Order: SVU.'
Peter Kramer/NBC
Despite calling it a 'SZN wrap on SVU,' the series is currently still going with the season finale, 'Post-Rage,' airing on May 15.
'Law & Order: SVU' follows detectives from the Special Victims Unit as they investigate and prosecute sexually based crimes. Many episodes are loosely ripped from the headlines.
The series — created by Dick Wolf — premiered 1999 with Mariska Hargitay (Olivia Benson), Christopher Meloni (Elliot Stabler), Dann Florek (Donald Cragen), Richard Belzer (John Munch) and Ice-T (Odafin Tutuola), as the titular cast.
8 Mariska Hargitay as Capt. Olivia Benson, Juliana AideÌn Martinez as Det. Kate Silva, AimeÌ Donna Kelly as Capt. Curry, Octavio Pisano as Det. Joe Velasco.
Peter Kramer/NBC
Hargitay, 61, still leads the show with Ice-T, 67, while Meloni, 64, exited in 2011.
The actor now stars in the spinoff 'Law & Order: Organized Crime,' which is airing its fifth season on Peacock.
In April, Hargitay reflected on starring on the procedural show for 26 years.
8 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' – Season 26.
Peter Kramer/NBC
8 Juliana AideÌn Martinez on 'Law & Order: SVU.'
Peter Kramer/NBC
'It feels like running a marathon, and when you're in it, all you see is this much ahead of you. I've been so busy, so challenged and it requires so much of me that all I can do is be on the treadmill of trying to keep up,' she said while on 'Sunday Today With Willie Geist.'
Hargitay sees parallels between her and Benson climbing up the ranks of their perspective fields.
'I would describe it as sort of the perfect feminist story,' she expressed at the time. 'There are these stepping stones of growth and integration and owning something. It's been such a beautiful evolution and such a beautiful journey.'
8 Octavio Pisano as Det. Joe Velasco, Ice T as Sgt. Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola, Juliana Aidén Martinez as Det. Kate Silva, Mariska Hargitay as Capt. Olivia Benson, Peter Scanavino as A.D.A Dominick 'Sonny' Carisi Jr., Kevin Kane as Det. Terry Bruno.
Ralph Bavaro/NBC via Getty Images
The actress confirmed the casting stories, that she and Meloni stepped into a room together and Wolf, 78, said 'that's it.'
'Absolutely,' Hargitay stated when Geist, 50, asked if she felt that way too. 'It was sort of a once in a lifetime experience. I knew quickly this we had this kind of magical chemistry. Chris and I are polar opposites in terms of who we are as people and yet there was this ying yang. When they paired us I was like, 'Oh this is done.''
