Peter Scanavino

Since 2005, Scanavino has had dozens of minor roles in films and on television, most notably Deception (2008), The Good Wife, and The Blacklist.[1][2]

In 2005, Scanavino guest-starred on the NBC crime-drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent in the fifth-season episode "Diamond Dogs" as petty criminal Johnny Feist. He was also a guest on Law & Order as a suspect who was a graphic designer in the 2009 episode "Just A Girl in the World".

In 2010, Scanavino took some time away from acting to pursue his interest in cooking. After graduating with a certificate in Culinary Arts from The French Culinary Institute in New York, he began a brief stint working in the kitchen of Dan Barber's Michelin-starred restaurant Blue Hill in Greenwich Village.[3] In 2013, Scanavino guest-starred on the long-running NBC crime-drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in Season 14, Episode 13, "Monster's Legacy", as Johnny Dubcek. The same year, he starred in the independent romantic-comedy film Mutual Friends, directed by Matthew Watts.[4][5]

In 2014, Scanavino joined SVU in its sixteenth season, this time as Dominick Carisi Jr., nicknamed Sonny, a new SVU detective. Initially in a recurring capacity, Scanavino was promoted to the main cast in the fifth episode of the same season. According to SVU Executive Producer Warren Leight, Carisi "come[s] in and shake[s] things up" and is "a guy who maybe needs a little bit of refining."[6][7] Scanavino noted that Carisi is "a total outsider. He's brusque and he doesn't really get the nuances and he's not very experienced so he puts his foot in his mouth a lot of times. But he's learning. He's picking it up. I think he's a good detective, but he's got a lot to learn on how to approach cases."[8][9]

Scanavino starred in an episode of Netflix's 2020 anthology series Social Distance as the father of his real-life son Leo Bai-Scanavino.[10]

Scanavino and his wife, painter Lisha Bai, welcomed their second child, a son named Leo, on January 8, 2016.[11] Little is known about the couple's first child, but in April 2020 Scanavino mentioned his "7 year old Sid" in a tweet.[12] Scanavino briefly studied at Boston University.[13] He is of Italian descent.[14]

• Peter Scanavino on Twitter
• Peter Scanavino at IMDb