Amanda Rollins is an Adjunct Professor of Criminal Behavior at Fordham University and a retired detective formerly assigned to the Special Victims Unit after moving to New York City from Atlanta, Georgia.
She has three kids including two daughters, Jesse Rollins, the father being Captain Declan Murphy; and Billie Rollins, the father being her former boyfriend Al Pollack.
She is currently married to ADA Dominick Carisi, Jr. following her resignation from the Special Victims Unit in 2022. Together they have one son, Dominick “Nicky” Carisi, lll.
Biography[]
She is from Loganville, Georgia, near Atlanta. (SVU: "Deadly Ambition")
While in Atlanta, Rollins hunted a serial rapist who ended up in New York City. (SVU: "Double Strands")
It was also revealed that she had a gambling problem and was $20,000 in debt with a bookie. Captain Cragen chose to get her help instead of firing her. (SVU: "Home Invasions") She has since been attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings. Rollins' previously mentioned troubled sister, Kim, comes to New York, causing problems for Amanda while she is trying to work a case. (SVU: "Friending Emily")
Later Kim returns to New York beaten by her ex-boyfriend Jeff Parker and claiming to be pregnant. (SVU: "Deadly Ambition") (Later on, she gives two versions of the supposed pregnancy; on one hand, Amanda finds out she had lied about the pregnancy, Kim confessed that her period had been late causing her to think she was pregnant and on the other, she tells Nick Amaro that she had lost the baby). When Amanda hears screams from inside her apartment, she finds Kim's ex-boyfriend beating Kim, and Amanda shoots and kills the man as he pulls a gun on her.
After her initial interview with IAB Lt. Tucker, Kim changes her story, including revealing a life insurance policy on the ex-boyfriend with Amanda's name on it (later on is revealed that Kim forged Amanda's signature because she thought that it would look suspicious if she was the sole beneficiary).
Kim's change of story from rape to accident is the result of finding out that neither she nor Amanda would get a penny from the insurance company if they found out that Jeff had died committing a crime. The supposed evidence of Amanda shooting Jeff in cold blood leads to Lt. Tucker arresting Amanda in Captain Cragen's office. The charges against Amanda are later dropped when Amaro tapes Kim confessing to setting Amanda up. Before Kim can be arrested, she steals everything from Amanda's apartment and disappears.
Rollins is shot by a sniper in front of the precinct. (SVU: "Poisoned Motive") Her shooting leads back to the daughter of Detective Tutuola's narcotics partner, who is out for revenge on the NYPD after her father was injured on the job by protecting Tutuola from a bullet.
Rollins is caught in the middle of a case in which her friend from Georgia claims to have been raped. (SVU: "Rapist Anonymous") When the alleged rapist is killed, her friend is put on trial and Rollins' personal life is revealed on the stand. This proves too much for her to handle and she is seen gambling, smoking, and drinking in the final scene.
Detective Rollins gambles at an illegal gambling station. (SVU: "Gambler's Fallacy") She is forced into the office of the owner after the waitress tells him she is a cop. After this, she is forced to work for them so she won't get exposed to her partners and her job. Amanda is told to steal a gun from evidence and later is caught by Detective Amaro from videotape surveillance. Later in the episode, it is revealed that Declan Murphy is in the NYPD, arresting everybody in the room. At the end of the episode, she would have been transferred if the unit wasn't short-staffed, as quoted by Sergeant Olivia Benson.
Eventually, the truth of why Amanda left Atlanta is discovered. (SVU: "Forgiving Rollins") Amanda agreed to be a "good girl" and sleep with Deputy Chief Patton to get her sister off the hook per Patton's request. She was only able to admit to the rape when one of her fellow former Detectives from Atlanta, Detective Reese Taymor, was raped by Patton. It's possible that Amanda also left due to rumors that Amanda came up with the idea to sleep with him to advance her career.
It was revealed Amanda was pregnant by September 2015. She never told the rest of the squad, though the fact was realized by serial killer Greg Yates, who taunted her about it. (SVU: "Devil's Dissections")
It is revealed that Declan Murphy is the father of her baby. (SVU: "Community Policing")
While Amanda is in labor, she suffers a placental abruption, almost resulting in her death.[1] (SVU: "Depravity Standard") However, she survives and delivers a healthy baby girl, Jesse.
She reveals to Benson that she is pregnant with a second child in Season 20, the father being Pollack.
Rollins has become close to both Nick Amaro and Dominick Carisi, Jr. and sexual tension has been hinted at between both of them, including a possible romantic relationship between Rollins and Amaro and possible romantic feelings between Rollins and Carisi. When Rollins is revealed to be pregnant in the season 17 premiere, she states that it is not Nick's baby, showing that they at least slept together. However, Rollins has often fought with Carisi and Amaro over certain cases, disagreeing with their opinions. This often becomes heated and makes their relationships complicated. Carisi and Rollins are constantly mistaken for dating, as noted by Rollins' father while he is in the hospital and by hospital staff when Carisi accompanies Rollins to appointments when she was pregnant with her daughters. After Carisi gets promoted to ADA, Rollins and Carisi's relationship becomes more strained, Rollins telling Carisi that she misses him. Eventually, Rollins asks Carisi to share his wedding officiating speech with her, as Finn and Phoebe had decided to no longer get married. Carisi shared his speech, speaking about "partnerships" at work are equivalent to marriages. Rollins is brought to tears to which Carisi comforts her. Rollins finally realizes that she has deeper feelings for Carisi, ultimately leading to Rollins kissing him. (SVU: "Wolves In Sheep's Clothing")
In 2019, Rollins revealed to Dr. Alexis Hanover that her father had called her after fifteen years and invited her to his wedding to another woman. She was later kidnapped by Detective Frank Bucci during her private therapy session with Hanover after Judge Joe Ellery declined to press charges against Steve Getz, who was grooming Bucci's daughters Ivy and Milly. (SVU: "Can't Be Held Accountable")
Eventually, after calming him down, Rollins convinced Frank to drive to the SVU precinct, where Rollins arrested Frank. She then broke down and cried in Carisi's arms, traumatized by her ordeal. (SVU: "Must Be Held Accountable")
In 2020, Rollins was promoted to Detective 2nd Grade. (SVU: "Solving For The Unknowns")
In 2021, Rollins came back to a case after a ten year old boy named Henry Mesner was released from juvenile detention on his eighteenth birthday. Rollins told Henry she had been worried about him and that she didn't want him to die. However, Rollins and her daughter Jesse were stalked and harassed by Henry, with Henry having several photos of Jesse on his phone. Rollins became even more angry after Henry had stabbed Carisi with a pencil in court. After Henry was imprisoned, Rollins visited him and angrily told him that she lied about him not wanting to die and told him that she did indeed want him to die and then warned him that if he ever stalked or came near her family again, she would kill him herself. (SVU: "Post-Graduate Psychopath")
While trying to protect Nicole Merrick, Rollins was shot by an unknown hitman while escorting Nicole out of witness protection. Rollins was rescued by Officer Dawson who shot the suspect before Rollins could be killed. Rollins was taken to hospital where she was treated for the wound. (L&O: "Gimme Shelter")
During the Austin Boyer trial, Rollins was violently harassed by fans of Boyer while walking out of the courtroom at one stage, with one female fan yelling and heckling Rollins for arresting Boyer. Rollins was immediately escorted to an elevator by the courthouse security guards who held the fans back. Rollins, feeling extremely overwhelmed and dizzy, stood with her back against the elevator wall with wide eyes watching the fans try to get into the elevator. Feeling overwhelmed with work, when Billie and Jesse thought there was a monster in the closet, Rollins pulled out her gun and checked her closet only to find a dog toy which was making noises. (SVU: "Mirror Effect")
Rollins and Carisi decided to get married, and the wedding was witnessed by Benson, Tutuola, and Velasco. Following one final case in which Benson and Rollins bonded closely, Rollins told Benson while the two were having fun in Benson's motel room that she was leaving the Special Victims Unit to become a professor. This deeply upset Benson, which resulted in the women having a mild fight due to their differing opinions on the subject, with Rollins leaving Benson's motel room during the fight. Feeling bad for her reaction, Benson tried to contact Rollins, but she wouldn't answer her phone. Rollins eventually met Benson in her office and the two reconciled before sharing a hug while crying. Rollins then walked out of Benson's office while the officers in the squad room clapped and cheered for Rollins. As Rollins hugged an officer, she looked at Benson and the two smiled at each other. (SVU: "And A Trauma In A Pear Tree")
After her retirement from the NYPD, Amanda became an adjunct professor of Criminal Behavior at Fordham University, and eventually became pregnant with her third child (Carisi's first). (OC: "Shadowërk", SVU: "All Pain Is One Malady", OC: "With Many Names")
Officer-involved shootings[]
- Liev Bodrov (SVU: "Russian Brides")
- Jeff Parker (SVU: "Deadly Ambition")
- Esther Labott (accidental) (SVU: "The Book of Esther")
- Unnamed Shooter (L&O: "Gimme Shelter")
Appearances[]
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (13 seasons, 243 episodes):
- Season 13: "Scorched Earth" • "Personal Fouls" • "Blood Brothers" • "Double Strands" • "Missing Pieces" • "True Believers" • "Russian Brides" • "Educated Guess" • "Lost Traveler" • "Spiraling Down" • "Theatre Tricks" • "Official Story" • "Father's Shadow" • "Home Invasions" • "Hunting Ground" • "Child's Welfare" • "Justice Denied" • "Valentine's Day" • "Street Revenge" • "Father Dearest" • "Learning Curve" • "Strange Beauty" • "Rhodium Nights
- Season 14: "Lost Reputation" • "Above Suspicion" • "Twenty-Five Acts" • "Acceptable Loss" • "Manhattan Vigil" • "Friending Emily" • "Vanity's Bonfire" • "Lessons Learned" • "Dreams Deferred" • "Presumed Guilty" • "Beautiful Frame" • "Criminal Hatred" • "Monster's Legacy" • "Secrets Exhumed" • "Deadly Ambition" • "Funny Valentine" • "Undercover Blue" • "Legitimate Rape" • "Born Psychopath" • "Girl Dishonored" • "Traumatic Wound" • "Poisoned Motive" • "Brief Interlude" • "Her Negotiation
- Season 15: "Surrender Benson" • "Imprisoned Lives" • "American Tragedy" • "Internal Affairs" • "Wonderland Story" • "October Surprise" • "Dissonant Voices" • "Military Justice" • "Rapist Anonymous" • "Psycho/Therapist" • "Amaro's One-Eighty" • "Jersey Breakdown" • "Betrayal's Climax" • "Wednesday's Child" • "Comic Perversion" • "Gridiron Soldier" • "Gambler's Fallacy" • "Criminal Stories" • "Downloaded Child" • "Beast's Obsession" • "Post-Mortem Blues" • "Reasonable Doubt" • "Thought Criminal" • "Spring Awakening
- Season 16: "Girls Disappeared" • "American Disgrace" • "Producer's Backend" • "Holden's Manifesto" • "Pornstar's Requiem" • "Glasgowman's Wrath" • "Chicago Crossover" • "Spousal Privilege" • "Pattern Seventeen" • "Forgiving Rollins" • "Decaying Morality" • "Intimidation Game" • "Undercover Mother" • "December Solstice" • "Parole Violations" • "Devastating Story" • "Granting Immunity" • "Daydream Believer" • "Perverted Justice" • "Surrendering Noah
- Season 17: "Devil's Dissections" • "Criminal Pathology" • "Transgender Bridge" • "Institutional Fail" • "Community Policing" • "Maternal Instincts" • "Patrimonial Burden" • "Depravity Standard" • "Catfishing Teacher" • "A Misunderstanding" • "Forty-One Witnesses" • "Nationwide Manhunt" • "Collateral Damages" • "Star-Struck Victims" • "Manhattan Transfer" • "Unholiest Alliance" • "Sheltered Outcasts" • "Fashionable Crimes" • "Assaulting Reality" • "Intersecting Lives" • "Heartfelt Passages
- Season 18: "Terrorized" • "Making a Rapist" • "Imposter" • "Heightened Emotions" •Rape Interrupted" • "Broken Rhymes" • "Next Chapter" • "Chasing Theo" • "Decline and Fall" • "Motherly Love" • "Great Expectations" • "No Surrender" • "Genes" • "Net Worth" • "Know It All" • "The Newsroom" • "Real Fake News" • "Spellbound" • "Conversion" • "American Dream" • "Sanctuary"
- Season 19: "Gone Fishin'" • "Mood" • "Contrapasso" • "No Good Reason" • "Complicated" • "Unintended Consequences" • "Something Happened" • "Intent" • "Gone Baby Gone" • "Pathological" • "Flight Risk" • "Info Wars" • "The Undiscovered Country" • "Chasing Demons" • "In Loco Parentis" • "Dare" • "Send In The Clowns" • "Service" • "Sunk Cost Fallacy" • "The Book of Esther" • "Guardian" • "Mama" • "Remember Me" • "Remember Me Too"
- Season 20: "Man Up" • "Man Down" • "Zero Tolerance" • "Revenge" • "Accredo" • "Exile" • "Caretaker" • "Hell's Kitchen" • "Mea Culpa" • "Alta Kockers" • "Plastic" • "Dear Ben" • "A Story of More Woe" • "Part 33" • "Brothel" • "Facing Demons" • "Missing" • "Blackout" • "Dearly Beloved" • "The Good Girl" • "Exchange" • "Diss" • "Assumptions" • "End Game"
- Season 21: "I'm Going To Make You a Star" • "The Darkest Journey Home" • "Down Low In Hell's Kitchen" • "The Burden Of Our Choices" • "At Midnight In Manhattan" • "Murdered at a Bad Address" • "Counselor, It's Chinatown" • "We Dream Of Machine Elves" • "Can't Be Held Accountable" • "Must Be Held Accountable" • "She Paints For Vengeance" • "The Longest Night Of Rain" • "Redemption In Her Corner" • "I Deserve Some Loving Too" • "Swimming With The Sharks" • "Eternal Relief From Pain" • "Dance, Lies and Video Tape" • "Garland's Baptism By Fire" • "Solving For The Unknowns" • "The Things We Have To Lose"
- Season 22: "Guardians and Gladiators" • "Ballad Of Dwight and Irena" • "Remember Me In Quarantine" • "Sightless in a Savage Land" • "The Long Arm Of The Witness" • "Hunt, Trap, Rape, and Release" • "The Only Way Out Is Through" • "Return Of The Prodigal Son" • "Welcome to the Pedo Motel" • "In The Year We All Fell Down" • "Post-Graduate Psychopath" • "What Can Happen In The Dark" • "Wolves In Sheep's Clothing"
- Season 23: "And The Empire Strikes Back" • "Never Turn Your Back On Them" • "I Thought You Were On My Side" • "One More Tale Of Two Victims" • "Fast Times @ TheWheelHouse" • "The Five Hundredth Episode" • "They'd Already Disappeared" • "Nightmares In Drill City" • "Silent Night, Hateful Night" • "Burning With Rage Forever" • "Tommy Baker's Hardest Fight" • "If I Knew Then What I Know Now" • "Video Killed The Radio Star" • "Promising Young Gentlemen" • "Eighteen Wheels A Predator" • "Tangled Strands Of Justice" • "Did You Believe In Miracles?" • "A Final Call At Forlini's Bar"
- Season 24: "Gimme Shelter" • "The One You Feed" • "Mirror Effect" • "The Steps We Cannot Take" • "Breakwater" • "Controlled Burn" • "Dead Ball" • "A Better Person" • "And A Trauma In A Pear Tree" • "All Pain Is One Malady"
- Season 25: "Tunnel Blind"
- Law & Order: Organized Crime (1 season, 4 episodes):
- Season 3: "Gimme Shelter" • "Behind Blue Eyes" • "Shadowërk" • "With Many Names"
- Law & Order (1 season, 1 episode):
- Chicago P.D. (2 seasons, 2 episodes):
- Season 1: "Conventions"
- Season 2: "They'll Have to Go Through Me"
- Chicago Fire (1 season, 1 episode):
- Season 3: "Nobody Touches Anything"
Trivia[]
- She has a degree in forensic science. (SVU: "Twenty-Five Acts")
- She has a pit bull, Frannie, that has appeared and been mentioned in multiple episodes. Frannie helped Amanda run down William Lewis after he flashed two tourists in Central Park. (SVU: "Her Negotiation")
- She enjoys watching reality TV shows. She mentioned being caught up on Duck Dynasty after she was shot. (SVU: "Poisoned Motive") She also watched shows SVU ended up investigating including American Diva, Bakers Dozen, Heart's Desire. (SVU: "Dissonant Voices", "Patrimonial Burden", and "Assaulting Reality") Carisi suggests they watch terrible reality TV together as well. (SVU: "Chasing Theo")
- Her father called her Mandy. (SVU: "Gridiron Soldier")
- She grew up in Loganville, Georgia. (SVU: "Gridiron Soldier"). Kelli Giddish was born in Cumming, Georgia, 33 miles northwest of Loganville.
- She ran track in high school. (SVU: "Gridiron Soldier").
- She often goes to Gambler's Anonymous meetings for her gambling addiction. (SVU: "Gambler's Fallacy") She made out numerous times with her sponsor, much to the anger of Amaro and Fin. (SVU: "Rapist Anonymous")
- She once used the alias of Megan Wheeler to obtain evidence while undercover. Megan Wheeler is the name of Julianne Nicholson's character from Law & Order: Criminal Intent. (SVU: "Gambler's Fallacy")
- She has a tattoo of her name on her forearm so that she can look at it whenever she is sad (SVU: "No Good Reason").
- Her badge number is #0458. (SVU: "Gambler's Fallacy")
- She refers to her father as daddy. (SVU: "Gridiron Soldier")
- Kelli Giddish previously played rape victim Kara Bawson. (SVU: "Outsider")
- It is revealed that she has a blind spot for men in power. (SVU: "Reasonable Doubt")
- Rollins is the only main character in SVU to have been raped. Benson has been previously sexually assaulted and nearly raped on two separate occasions, once while undercover and the other while being held hostage by William Lewis. In addition, Tamin has also been sexually assaulted and nearly raped while undercover.
- Rollins held the rank of Detective 3rd Grade from her first appearance in "Scorched Earth" until her promotion to Detective 2nd Grade in "Solving For The Unknowns".
- Unlike Amaro, Tamin, Garland, Velasco, and Muncy she has met all the members from the original squad.
- Rollins and Carisi are the only main characters in the franchise to get married to another main character, with the two marrying each other.
Footnotes[]
- ↑ While "Depravity Standard" ends on a cliffhanger and we are given no clear explanation as to what is happening to Amanda during her sudden distress in labor, a deleted scene reveals that the cause of her distress was a placental abruption.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Main Characters | |
Senior Detectives: Elliot Stabler • John Munch • Odafin Tutuola • Olivia Benson • Amanda Rollins Junior Detectives: Olivia Benson • Monique Jeffries • Odafin Tutuola • Chester Lake • Amanda Rollins • Nick Amaro • Dominick Carisi, Jr. • Katriona Tamin • Joe Velasco • Grace Muncy Squad Supervisors: John Munch • Olivia Benson • Odafin Tutuola Commanding Officers: Donald Cragen • Olivia Benson • Christian Garland Assistant District Attorneys: Alexandra Cabot • Casey Novak • Kim Greylek • Rafael Barba • Peter Stone • Dominick Carisi, Jr. Others: Melinda Warner • George Huang |