1.Two time Oscar Winner Mahershala Ali guest starred as Mark Foster, a criminal who caused trouble for a wrongfully accused inmate.
2.Bradley Cooper, nominated for his role in A Star Is Born, guest starred as Jason Whitaker, a charismatic but super shady estate attorney.
3.Academy award winner/overall badass Viola Davis played the recurring role of defense attorney Donna Emmett, waaaayyy before she took up the role of Annalise Keating.
4.Robin Williams, who won his Academy Award for his role in Good Will Hunting, played Merritt Rook, one of SVU's most infamous criminals.
5.Rooney Mara, who's been nominated for two separate Academy Awards, got her start on SVU as Jessica DeLay, an awful fat-phobic teenage murderer.
6.J.K. Simmons, Academy Award winner for his role in Whiplash, played Dr. Emil Skoda, a controversial psychiatrist.
7.Michael Shannon, who's been nominated for two separate Academy Awards, starred as Avery Shaw, a suspected child killer.
8.Patricia Arquette, who won her Academy Award for her role in Boyhood, played Jeannie Kerns, a reformed prostitute/informant for the special victims unit.
9.Rosie Perez, who was nominated for her role in Fearless, played Eva Banks, the mother of a child who's been molested who helps the SVU bring down a pedophile ring.
10.Abigail Breslin, who was nominated for her role in Little Miss Sunshine, played Patty Branson, a girl caught up in a nail-bitting custody battle.
11.Terrence Howard, nominated for his role in Hustle & Flow, played D.A. Jonah Dekker in an SVU and Law & Order: Los Angeles crossover episode.
12.Virginia Madsen, nominated for her role in Sideways, played the role of Det. Rollins' mother, Beth Anne Rollins.
13.Chloë Sevigny, who was nominated for her role in Boys Don't Cry, played Christine Hartwell, a pathological con-artist.
14.Ellen Burstyn, who won an Academy Award for her role in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, played Det. Elliot Stabler's mother, Bernadette Stabler.
15.Marcia Gay Harden, who won an Academy Award for her role in Pollock, played Dana Lewis, a former FBI agent-turned-murderer.
16.Alec Baldwin, nominated for his role in The Cooler, played Jimmy MacArthur, an egotistical newspaper reporter who compromised one of Olivia's cases.
17.And, last but not least, EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg starred as Janette Grayson, a neglectful social worker.
