Michele Fazekas has known Mariska Hargitay and the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” team for 25 years. While she didn’t join the drama as showrunner until this year’s 27th season, she was in the writers’ room for Seasons 3 through 7 and kept a friendship with the show’s leading women.
So, at the end of Season 26, as the Dick Wolf procedural began searching for a new showrunner, it was perfect timing: Fazekas had just wrapped Prime Video’s “Gen V” and was looking for something new. She returned in a big way, becoming the first woman to showrun the iconic series.
“I had a secret fantasy of having a female showrunner for … a few years,” quips star and exec producer Hargitay. “Michele and I always connected. She was so smart, and those years on ‘SVU’ were some of my favorites. Her episodes during that time were the best ones.”
Fazekas immediately realized there was “a great synchronicity with how we all think” upon joining the show. For example, she noted that the walls and lighting felt dark. She wasn’t afraid to bring it up to director Brenna Malloy — and her note was heard and implemented. “We were all rowing in the same direction. There’s no toxicity. Having worked in really toxic environments, it’s like, oh my God, I don’t know what to do with myself! We all just want to make a good show and not make it harder than it needs to be.”
