Kelli Giddish

Kelli Marie Giddish (born April 13, 1980) is an American television, stage, and film actress. She is best known for her portrayal of NYPD Detective Amanda Rollins in the NBC crime-drama television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2011-2023). Giddish previously played Di Henry on the ABC soap opera All My Children (2005–2007), Dr. Kate McGinn in the Fox crime-drama series Past Life (2010), and Annie Nolan Frost in the NBC crime-drama series Chase (2010–2011). Early life Giddish was born in Cumming, Georgia. She is the daughter of Charles and Nita Giddish, and she has a brother named Eli. Her paternal grandfather nudged her interest in acting along by taking her to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Her maternal grandmother was also very supportive of her interests. In Georgia, she attended Forsyth Central High School and was very involved with a local drama teacher named Yatesy Harvey, who was a friend of her mother and ran a community theater. For years in her youth Giddish performed in Harvey's plays and participated in her sleepover drama camps. Of Harvey, Giddish has been quoted as saying, "She just inspired a fierce curiosity and very high standards of what acting was and how much dedication it took and rehearsal and we would do plays every night." Giddish won a number of accolades in her youth. While at Forsyth Central, she was a member of their championship softball team and in 1998 she was the State Literary Champion for Girls Dramatic Interpretation.