Angela Michelle “Angie” Harmon (born August 10, 1972) is an American fashion model and television/film actress. She became a well-known model in the 1990s and developed a career as a television star after roles on Baywatch Nights and Law & Order.
Harmon was born in Highland Park, Texas, the daughter of Daphne Demar (née Caravageli) and Lawrence Paul “Larry” Harmon, a hospital information-network executive in Dallas. Her mother is of Greek descent and her father is of Irish and Cherokee Native American ancestry. Both of her parents were models in the 1970s. They divorced in 1982 and her father later remarried.
Harmon began acting in 1995 after being discovered on a plane by David Hasselhoff. She then starred in several television series, including Baywatch Nights, Baywatch and C-16: FBI. She also appeared in the 1998 film, Lawn Dogs, which received only a limited theatrical release. In the late 1990s, Harmon became better known by joining the long-running NBC series Law & Order, playing ADA Abbie Carmichael from 1998-2001. During this time, she also voiced Barbara Gordon in the animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, succeeding Stockard Channing in that role.
Harmon left Law & Order to concentrate on her film career, saying that she preferred working in film to television. After appearing in the 2001 direct-to-video film Good Advice, she had a supporting role in Agent Cody Banks (2003), playing the CIA handler of a teenage agent (Frankie Muniz). In 2006, Harmon co-starred with Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Woods in the direct-to-DVD political suspense drama End Game.
In 2006, Harmon starred as the lead in the ABC pilot Secrets of a Small Town, which did not go to series. She also starred in another failed television show on NBC, Inconceivable. The program was canceled after two episodes. The following year, she starred in another ABC pilot, Women’s Murder Club. The police drama was picked up, running 13 episodes.
Harmon was one of five actresses who posed discreetly nude for the May 2008 issue of Allure magazine, along Gabrielle Union, Zoe McLellan, Jill Scott, and Ana Ortiz.
Harmon co-stars with Sasha Alexander in the TNT crime-drama series Rizzoli & Isles, playing Boston, Massachusetts, police detective Jane Rizzoli. The show is scheduled to premiere July 12, 2010.
