As an actress, there were so many months, years even, when I didn't get work, when I wanted to quit.

The encounter which had ignited profound spiritual feelings within her was one that Hargitay hoped to share with others. According to Hargitay Mariska Hargitay was inspired by an encounter with a school of dolphins that surrounded her while Mariska Hargitay was swimming off the coast of Hawaii at the age of 15. Hargitay returned for a twelfth season and began filming her first scenes in June and July 2010.

Mariska Hargitay (pron. She appeared in numerous roles in film and television shows throughout the late 1980s and 1990s before being cast as Olivia Benson a role that led to her founding the Joyful Heart Foundation which provides support to women who have been sexually abused. The daughter of actress Jayne Mansfield and actor/bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay Hargitay is a former beauty queen who made her film debut in the 1985 horror-comedy film Ghoulies and her major television debut in the 1986 adventure drama series Downtown.