Mariska Hargitay Founder, Joyful Heart Foundation, Actress (Wikimedia Commons)

Mariska Hargitay
Founder of Joyful Heart Foundation
Actress, Producer, Director

Almost all of Americans have heard of Mariska Hargitay, the actress who plays Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I’m not sure how many people know that in 2004 she founded the Joyful heart Foundation, which helps survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. She is a rape survivor.
Her goal since 2010 has been to eliminate the national rape kit backlog.  A Detroit prosecutor discovered in 2009 that over 11,000 rape kits had not been tested. Each kit represented a reported sexual assault between 1984 and 2009.

When Hargitay heard that the cost of testing each kit was over $1,000, she stepped in to raise money and awareness. As a result, the Joyful Heart Foundation developed the Six Pillars of Rape Kit Reform. They are:

• Annual statewide inventory: Mandating a regular, public count of all untested sexual assault kits in the possession of law enforcement and medical facilities.
• Mandatory testing of backlogged kits: Requiring the submission and testing of all previously untested, stored rape kits.
• Mandatory testing of new kits: Enacting laws that require all newly collected rape kits to be submitted to a crime lab and tested within a specific timeframe.
• Statewide tracking systems: Establishing a centralized electronic tracking system so officials and survivors can monitor the status of a kit at every stage of the process.
• Victim’s right to know: Implementing mechanisms and protocols that guarantee survivors the right to easily access information about the status, location, and testing results of their kits.
• Fund reform: Securing dedicated, sustained funding to ensure that labs can process all kits and that the tracking and notification systems remain operational.

Hargitay then worked to have every state adopt at least one pillar. She achieved that goal on May 1, 2026 when the last remaining state, Maine, enacted a pillar.

Hargitay’s life has been tragic and fortunate. Her actress mother Jayne Mansfield, along with her boyfriend and driver, died in a car crash in 1967. Hagerty was three years old, asleep in the back seat with her two brothers. She was found under the passenger seat of the car. She didn’t learn until she was in her 20s that Mickey Hargitay, her mother’s husband who raised her, wasn’t her biological father. Nelson Sardelli, an Italian-Brazilian singer is. Her mother had four other children, and her biological father had three other children.

She grew up in Santa Monica, and she chose acting as her career. She has co-produced the documentary I am Evidence, launched the production company Mighty Entertainment and founded Joyful Heart Foundation. She has been in several television series, but her role as Olivia Benson, is the longest-running character of all time in an American prime time drama.

 Bio

• Born – Mariska Magdolna Hargitay January 23, 1964 in Santa Monica, California
• Mother is actress Jayne Mansfield; father is Italian-Brazilian singer Nelson Sardelli. Her mother’s husband, Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian body builder and actor, raised her
• 1982 – graduated from Marymount High School in Los Angeles
• Entered UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; did not receive a degree
• 2004 – Founded Joyful Heart Foundation

 Career

• 1988 – Falcon Crest as Carly Fixx; In the Heat of the Night as Audine Higgs
• 1992 – Tequila and Bonetti as Officer Angela Garcia
• 1999 –  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Olivia Benson
• 2025 – Released the documentary My Mom Jayne on HBO

 Awards

• 2004 – Golden Globe Award
• 2005 – Good sister Award for advocacy: 100 Women Against Child Abuse
• 2006 – Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Drama as Olivia Benson
• 2013 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• 2025 – Time’s 100 Most Influential Philanthropists

Personal

• 2004 – Became a certified rape counselor
• 2004 – Married Peter Hermann, an actor she met on Law & Order: SVU
• 2006 – August, son born on June 28
• 2011 – The couple adopted Amaya in April
• 2011 – The couple adopted Andrew in October

Further information
www.joyfulheartfoundation.org
www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/mariska-hargitay-was-living-a-lie-for-30-years
people.com/parents/all-about-mariska-hargitay-peter-hermann-kid

My ebooks available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com:
Honoring 23 Black Women, Recognizing 23 Notable Mothers, Saluting 23 Faithful Suffragists