Her own friends warned her: don’t do it.
Mariska Hargitay, 62, was on the verge of turning down hosting the 2026 Emmys. She thought it was, in her words, “a difficult job that everyone ends up criticizing”.
But she decided to take the risk, and today, September 14, she will become the first woman to host the ceremony solo in 15 years, something no one had achieved since Jane Lynch in 2011.
Before that, she had won two Creative Arts Emmys for ‘My Mom Jayne,’ the documentary she directed about her mother, Jayne Mansfield. And all of that while she continues playing Captain Olivia Benson in ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ since 1999, the same role that earned her first Emmy in 2006 and that today sustains her fame, her fortune, and even her social cause against gender-based violence.
A single character, 27 years, and a career that keeps adding chapters.