A statuesque Danish beauty, Connie Nielsen has lent her considerable talents to parts that have cast her as everything from Satan's spawn to an astronaut to an emperor's daughter. Regardless of the role or the quality of the script, she has managed to transcend the limitations and delivered memorable full-bodied performances. Raised in a small coastal village in Denmark, Nielsen became enamored with movies at a young age through weekly visits at the local movie theater. She was encouraged to pursue a theatrical career by her actress-writer mother, alongside whom she made her stage acting debut at age 15. Three years later, Nielsen moved to Paris to pursue a career and she further studied her craft in such far-flung locations as South Africa, NYC and Rome. Fluent in several languages, she easily found work in films produced in Italy and France and caught a break with the American made-for-cable movie "Voyage" (USA Network, 1993).

Handsome, with chiseled, smooth looks and deep olive skin, Benjamin Bratt became known to TV viewers in 1995 when he joined the hit NBC series "Law & Order" in its sixth season, creating the role of Reyaldo 'Rey' Curtis, whose mestizo ancestry--mixed Latino-Indian and German background--matched Bratt's own. His character on the series, a family-oriented younger cop with conservative values, provided a marked contrast to the older, more liberal and cynical Det. Lenny Briscoe (Jerry Orbach).