Law & Order is adding a touch of Grimm for Season 22.
Claire Coffee, who played villainess Adalind Schade on the cult NBC series Grimm, will join the hit drama in a possible recurring role.
While details are scarce, it seems Coffee will play a lawyer, which may be part of a plan for a rotating selection of attorney characters in the series.
Coffee might become one of those regular faces to clash with the ADAs in court and likely hit them with her tough attitude.
The actress has experience playing a lawyer in past TV roles, which can add more spark for Season 22 as Price and Maroun face a regular roster of defense attorneys in hard cases.
TV Line was the first to break the news of the casting, which is the first notable guest star for the upcoming season.
Law & Order’s history of recurring lawyer characters
Law & Order is well known for having a score of regular defense attorneys meeting up against the prosecutors in court.
The mothership Law & Order had a few recurring defense attorneys, such as Danielle Melnick (Tovah Feldshuh) and quirky Randy Dworkin (Peter Jacobson).
Before her rise to an Oscar and Emmy-winning star, Viola Davis appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Donna Emmett. The late Ned Eisenberg played two different recurring defense attorneys on both the mothership and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Another notable face was Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann), who’s appeared in over thirty episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Since Law & Order was revived for Season 21, there has been talk of the possibility of creating some regular defense attorneys for the ADAs to meet up with. Speaking to Give Me My Remote in the spring, showrunner Rick Eid indicated a plan was to build up that roster.
“I think it’s always great to have people return, and build up your stable of [possibly] eight to 10 defense lawyers that can do two or three episodes in the season. And we’re always trying to find new actors to play defense lawyers. New York has so much talent, we love to find new people—or not-so-new people that just haven’t done the show—and create a character.”
It now appears the first of these guest star lawyers has been found and a familiar one to NBC viewers.
Who is Claire Coffee?
Born in 1980, Claire Coffee grew up in California before graduating from Northwestern University.
She began her career with guest star turns in various TV series such as The West Wing, Bones, and CSI. She also had a regular role as Nadine Crowell on General Hospital.
Coffee broke out on the cult NBC series Grimm as Adalind Schade, a “Hexenbiest” creature posing as a lawyer.
Starting as a villainess, the character slowly became more sympathetic and, by the end of the show’s six-season run, was on the good guys’ side.
Coffee also had a recurring role on S.W.A.T. and is a regular on the NBC drama Lincoln Rhyme: The Bone Collector.
While there is no word on which episode she’ll debut or her character name, Coffee should stand out and begin a trend of regular defense attorney faces popping in to spark Law & Order more.
Law & Order Season 22 premieres Thursday, September 22 at 8/7c on NBC.