Who

Balding alpha-male Meloni is best known for his roles as Detective Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: SVU and as a bisexual serial killer on the HBO show Oz.

Backstory

Half-Italian and half-Quebecois, Meloni was raised in the suburbs of Washington and worked a series of jobs well-suited to his brawny image before hitting it big as an actor: After moving to New York, he spent several years working as a construction worker, bouncer and personal trainer. In 1990, following a bunch of bit parts in TV movies and sitcoms, he scored a role on the NBC primetime comedy series The Fanelli Boys. The show was short-lived, though, and Meloni spent the mid-'90s making do with small parts in everything from Runaway Bride to Twelve Monkeys. He didn't earn mainstream fame until 1998 when he became bisexual sociopath Chris Keller on Oz, a character he played for five seasons. In 1999, he joined the cast of Dick Wolf's Law & Order: SVU.

Of note

As the troubled Detective Elliot Stabler, Meloni has spent nearly a decade investigating "heinous" sex crimes alongside Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T on L&O: SVU, and he isn't planning to stop anytime soon. In 2007, he signed on for two more seasons, a contract that reportedly earns him $6.5 million a year. But Meloni's career isn't all about punching rapists and rescuing abused kids; he's also taken time out for a few films. He played Freakshow in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and will return for the 2008 follow-up Harold and Kumar 2. He'll also appear in the upcoming Brief Interviews With Hideous Men and Nights in Rodanthe alongside Richard Gere and Diane Lane.

The look

The 6-foot star has a butterfly tattoo on his upper thigh, which he had inked more than 20 years ago. He also has a tattoo of Jesus on his arm that he got when he was 37.

Personal

Meloni and his wife, production designer Doris Sherman Williams, have two young children, Sophia and Dante, both of whom were born with the help of a surrogate mother. In 2005, Meloni sold his old apartment on the Upper West Side to CNN's Miles O'Brien for $3.2 million; Meloni and family now live in a condo on West 56th Street they bought for $5.45 million. They spend weekends at a home in Milford, Conn.

True story

In 2000, he kissed fellow Oz actor Lee Tergesen at an awards show sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, sparking rumors about his sexuality.

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