page_title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 15)
section_title: Guest stars
hierarchical_section_title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 15) / Cast / Guest stars
caption_attribution_description: Sofia Vassilieva in June 2009.
context_page_description: The fifteenth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit made its debut with a two-hour premiere episode on September 25, 2013, at 9pm/8c - 11pm/10c, on NBC. The season ended on May 21, 2014.
context_section_description: After appearing in the fourteenth-season finale, Dean Winters (Brian Cassidy), Pablo Schreiber (William Lewis), and Lauren Ambrose (Vanessa Mayer) continued their respective portrayals in the season premiere episode, "Surrender Benson". Winters also starred in the subsequent episodes, "Imprisoned Lives", "Internal Affairs", and "Wonderland Story". Cybill Shepherd guest starred in the 'ripped from the headlines' third episode of the season, which combines the Shooting of Trayvon Martin case and the Paula Deen racial epithet controversy. Shepherd's character, Jolene Castille, thought she was being pursued by a rapist and turned around to discover it was a teenager. She shot him. Jeffrey Tambor reprised his role as Defense Attorney Ben Cohen in this episode, to represent Castille.
  David Conrad, who had originally auditioned to play detective Nick Amaro, appeared in "Internal Affairs" as Officer West, together with Nadia Dajani as Officer Ryan Quinn, who were suspected of raping young women during their shifts.
  In "Wonderland Story", Sofia Vassilieva guest starred as Sarah Walsh, a rape victim who needed the help of Detective Benson after being raped again. Vassilieva first appeared as Walsh in the thirteenth season's "True Believers". Munch's resignation in this episode welcomed back his ex-wives Gwen Munch (Carol Kane) and Billie Lou Hatfield (Ellen McElduff) and his former Homicide: Life on the Street co-worker, Baltimore Detective Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson).
  Kirk Acevedo appeared as Eddie Garcia in "October Surprise", a childhood friend of ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza). Originally, Acevedo played District Attorney investigator Hector Salazar in the short-lived Law & Order spin-off, Law & Order: Trial by Jury. He had made an appearance on SVU in the sixth season's TBJ-SVU crossover episode "Night".
  Tony Award winner Billy Porter guest starred in "Dissonant Voices" as singing coach and television personality Jackie Walker, who was accused of sexual abuse by his students. The X Factor season 2 contestant Carly Rose Sonenclar portrayed Grace Belsey in this episode. Ashanti, Clay Aiken and Taylor Hicks make cameos as judges on a reality show.
  In "Military Justice", Shiri Appleby made a special appearance as Amelia Albers, a junior officer who appeared to have been raped by her group of soldiers. In the same episode, Laura Benanti returns as Maria Grazie, the ex-wife of Detective Amaro, who provides information about the case to the SVU squad. Terry Serpico appears as Lieutenant Commander Travers, the commanding officer of Albers, and Delaney Williams returns as Defense Attorney John Buchanan.
  In "Rapist Anonymous", Nia Vardalos returned as Defense Attorney Minonna Efron, having previously appeared in the season 14 episode, "Criminal Hatred". In the same episode, former co-star of The Killing, Amy Seimetz and Thomas Sadoski guest starred. Mel Harris appears in "Rapist Anonymous" and "Amaro’s One-Eighty" as Eileen Switzer, the new girlfriend of Captain Cragen.
   It was announced that Pablo Schreiber will return in the tenth episode of the season, "Psycho/Therapist", as William Lewis, when facing trial for kidnapping and assault to Detective Olivia Benson. Renée Elise Goldsberry is guest starring in the same episode as the lawyer Martha Brown, who defends Lewis.
  In "Amaro’s One-Eighty", Cathy Moriarty returned as Captain Toni Howard. In the same episode, Elizabeth Marvel reprises her role as defense attorney Rita Calhoun and Greg Germann returns as ADA Derek Strauss. In "Jersey Breakdown", Alana de la Garza returned as her Law & Order character, Connie Rubirosa, now as a Federal Prosecutor heading up a joint task force on underage sex trafficking. In the same episode, Bill Sage, Chazz Palminteri, Stefanie Scott, and Dayton Callie guest star.
   Rosanna Arquette and Mark Boone Junior guest star in "Wednesday’s Child" playing a criminal couple, known for child endangerment and pornography. Josh Pais guest stars in the same episode playing Hank Abraham, who also appears in "October Surprise".
  Sophia Bush guest stars as her Chica
caption: Sofia Vassilieva appears in "Wonderland Story", reprising her role as Sarah Walsh from season thirteen.
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