New ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Juliana Aiden Martinez Shares First Impression of ‘Formidable’ Mariska Hargitay

New ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Juliana Aiden Martinez Shares First Impression of ‘Formidable’ Mariska Hargitay
Detective Kate Silva has a lot of pressure to live up to in Season 26, as does the young actress making her debut on the NBC procedural.

Many actors have been on or dream of being on Law & Order: SVU, whether playing a dead body, a criminal, or one of those extras who can’t stop working long enough to talk to the cops. Only a chosen few get to join the long-running cop franchise as an actual detective, and get to work alongside Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) herself. Season 26 welcomes Juliana Aiden Martinez as Jr. Detective Kate Silva, a transfer from homicide into the SVU. She may be a newbie, but she gets the pressure put on her immediately as the season opens. She’s the daughter of a well respected cop and deputy commissioner, and while she’s only been at SVU for three weeks, Captain Benson is already taking her under her wing in her very first scene.

Martinez most notably played Miami intelligence agent June Hawkins in the Netflix miniseries Griselda, which was based on the real story of the takedown of Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco, played by Sofia Vergara. Kate Silva might not be directly inspired by a real person like June Hawkins was, but Law & Order is well known for stories ripped from the headlines, and Martinez is already learning the toll it can take on an actor. Luckily, she’s got coworkers like Hargitay and Ice-T who have been doing it for 25 years and might be able to offer a few pointers.

In an interview with Parade, Martinez shared what she’s learned and what she still has to learn from some of the best in the biz.