How Old Was Ice T When He Started Law & Order: SVU?
Where would Law & Order: Special Victims Unit be without the beloved Ice T as Sergeant Fin Tutuola?
For 27 seasons and counting, SVU fans have adored Ice T’s magnetic performance as the steadfast detective turned sergeant on the NBC nail-biter. Whether he’s slinging barbed sarcasm during an interrogation or having a heart-to-heart with his longtime ride-or-die, Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Ice T never fails to steal the show anytime he’s on a case. While Fin Tutuola has become a primetime mainstay, some fans may wonder how old the rapper was when he first hopped aboard the franchise.
Find out how old the SVU icon and rapper was when he first began cracking cases with Benson and her elite squad.
How old was Ice T when he joined Law & Order: SVU?
Ice T joined SVU in 2000 at 42 years old, with Fin Tutuola making his debut in the Season 2 premiere (Wrong Is Right”). Considering that one day Ice T would break records as the longest-running actor in a TV series, it’s hard to believe that Fin Tutuola had originally been intended as a recurring guest role.
Ice T opened up about the fortuitous twist of fate during his 2022 Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, joking with the crowd at the time that “four episodes turned into 24 years.”
And Law & Order fans wouldn’t have it any other way as Fin continues to kick criminal butt on Season 27 of SVU.
Ice T skyrocketed to fame as a trailblazing rapper
Long before stealing hearts on SVU, Ice T enjoyed a prolific career as a rapper, one of the pioneers responsible for popularizing gangsta rap in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when he produced infectious singles like “6 ‘N the Mornin'” and “O.G. Original Gangster,” to name a few. Ice T boasts chameleonic skill in the recording studio, later becoming the frontman of the heavy metal band Body Count.
SVU wasn’t Ice T’s first time in front of the camera, either. Before stepping into Tutuola’s shoes on Law & Order, Ice T had already appeared in several television and big-screen projects. Some of Ice T’s biggest credits include 1991 films like New Jack City and Ricochet, as well as a recurring television guest role on Dick Wolf’s New York Undercover and Players, where he first flexed his procedural chops.
Ice T and his wife, Coco Austin, also delighted audiences with three seasons of their reality show Ice Loves Coco, which shone a spotlight on their darling relationship.
Ice T talks about his long-running tenure on SVU
While Ice T has dipped his toe in virtually every pool within the entertainment industry, few can separate him from his iconic role on SVU, where he’s entertained audiences for 26 seasons and running. And if you ask Ice T, he’s not complaining about the paycheck bump from before his Law & Order era.
“When I first got on the show, I was doing movies and stuff, and I didn’t understand residuals,” Ice T said in a November 2022 interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “And so the first year I did the show, I’m like, ‘I don’t know how long I’ll do this show. I don’t know how long.’ And then my accountant showed me this number after a year, and I’m like, ‘What’s that number?’ and she said, ‘That’s residuals.’ You don’t make residuals from movies unless you’re, like, Brad Pitt or somebody. You get, like, a dollar for a movie.”
Ice T told Seth Meyers he was prepared to remain at his SVU post for as long as possible. Now having broken records as the longest-running actor in a TV series (an honor he shares with SVU powerhouse Mariska Hargitay, the longest-running actress in a TV series), Ice T credits SVU‘s mythic chokehold on fans for the glimmering achievement.
“You’ve gotta be on the show that stays on the longest,” he told ET. “There are people that have acted way longer than me, but to be on one show continuously for that long, it has never been done.”