Why You Recognize Maria Dizzia, Olivia Benson’s Trusted Ally on Law & Order: SVU
Season 27 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit just delivered yet another white-knuckled episode, but luckily, the squad was able to secure justice with the help of SVU‘s latest guest star, Maria Dizzia.
Applauded for her performances in nail-biters like Orange Is The New Black, Dizzia is one of the many powerhouse stars who have crossed paths with Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) this season. From two-faced perpetrators who feign innocence to cut-throat red herrings that throw the squad through a loop, you never know who you might recognize while tuning in for Law & Order Thursdays. As usual, Dizzia was magnetic alongside the dynamite SVU ensemble amid their investigation into a fellow doctor.
Dizzia guest-starred in SVU Season 27’s “Hubris” as Dr. Ashley Mancini, an ally to Benson who helps the squad make sense of a mind-boggling foster system case. Read on to find out where you’ve seen Dizzia before SVU and what happened in the latest episode.
Why you recognize SVU guest star Maria Dizzia
While many may recognize Dizzia for her role as Polly in the hit series Orange is the New Black or as Mrs. Down in 13 Reasons Why, she’s also recurred in series like New Amsterdam, Emergence, The Undoing, The Staircase, Life & Beth, and Agatha All Along. Dizzia boasts dozens of television guest appearances across genres, delivering dynamite performances in series like Fringe, Elementary, The Blacklist, and The Good Wife.
While Dizzia’s performance as Dr. Ashley Mancini was a grand slam, it wasn’t her first time going toe to toe with detectives in the squad room. In 2006, guest starred as Daphne in a Season 5 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (“Cruise to Nowhere”). Two years later, she guest starred as Melinda Whitman in a Season 18 episode of Law & Order (“Tango”).
Maria Dizzia played a heroic doctor on Law & Order: SVU Season 27
After finding a 15-year-old girl named Riley Williams was forced into prostitution after being tossed in the foster system upon an inaccurate family court ruling, Benson took it upon herself to get to the bottom of the potential corruption within the social services system. Riley had been removed from the home due to a broken arm, which she and her father, Nate, said was from a sports-related injury. But the family courts deemed the incident as abusive, removing Riley from the home.
Benson decided to give the Williams case another look, learning that Riley was thrown in foster care by the urging of Dr. Bethany Allen, a pediatric abuse specialist, who’d given this ruling after remotely assessing Riley. Benson visited Riley’s hospital to meet with her friend, Dizzia’s Dr. Ashley Mancini, to talk about Riley’s case.
Ashley said the arm fracture could have been from warding off a blow, or it could be a sports accident like Riley described, admitting that it was a tough call. She herself wouldn’t have taken Riley out of the house, but she was just using case files. Benson pointed out that Allen had been making decisions remotely based on medical files, as well, so her assessment was just as valid.
Ashley explained that there were only a few hundred people in Allen’s position, and she was one of the most respected child abuse pediatricians in the country. But Ashley confessed that doctors can get myopic, rejecting any theories that don’t conform to their own. Ashley also thought it strange that someone with Allen’s renown had moved around to so many hospitals so much throughout her career, only to settle at Bronx General.
“A small hospital in the Bronx isn’t exactly a step up, I always wondered why,” Ashley pondered, giving Benson plenty to work with.
After dredging up another one of Allen’s cases in which a single mother was imprisoned after Allen ruled her baby had abusive head trauma, Benson soon smelled foul play afoot as they realized the mother only pled guilty to avoid a jury trial. Benson visited Ashley again, this time bringing the second case she found for review.
Ashley was nervous about being asked to question the assessment of a colleague, but agreed to provide an unbiased opinion to verify that the courts hadn’t sent an innocent mother to prison. It didn’t take long for a panicked Ashley to visit Benson’s precinct, telling the SVU Captain that Dr. Allen had doctored her report.
Dr. Ashley Mancini helped the SVU stop a corrupt doctor
Upon running tests for potential causes for the brain bleed, which Dr. Allen suspected was shaken baby syndrome, she had ordered a test for a congenital clotting disorder. After Ashley combed through Allen’s reports, she discovered that the baby tested positive for the congenital disorder, which was a likely cause for the bleed. However, Allen omitted this test from her final ruling for some mystifying reason.
Benson was right: Dr. Allen was profiling Black single parents, and she’d torn apart at least two families. With this evidence, Benson brought Dr. Allen to court, where A.D.A. Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) cross-examined Allen about the many tests she ran. Allen then lied on the stand, giving Carisi everything he needed to charge her with perjury. Upon being cornered with this undeniable obstruction of justice, Allen revealed her racist rhetoric while questioning the squad’s actions, ultimately agreeing to revoke her medical license to avoid charges.