As Law And Order: SVU Celebrates Peter Scanavino's Birthday, I Love His Take On Whether Or Not Carisi Would Swear On Organized Crime

Not many people can claim to be born on February 29, but longtime Law & Order: SVU star Peter Scanavino is one of those few. The actor, who can be found on NBC Thursday nights as part of the 2025 TV schedule, has been part of the nine-show Dick Wolf world not only as the same character for more than 200 episodes, but he played a few other characters before landing the Carisi role. So, it's really only fitting that the Instagram account for the whole Law & Order franchise wished him the best for his birthday.

That said, seeing that post combined with recent Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 news has me flashing back to what he told me about Carisi, Peacock, and expletives. And technically, since 2025 is not a Leap Year, the Instagram account could only celebrate Scanavino on the closest available date that was still in his birth month, which means the well wishes went online on February 28! Take a look:

With more than ten years and 200 episodes to his name, there was no shortage of options for Carisi pics to post for the actor's birthday, and I for one enjoy that there's a mix of ADA Carisi and Detective Carisi. He was a cop for a long time before he passed the bar, after all, and that was a memorable era of SVU. For her part, leading lady Mariska Hargitay wasn't going to let the day go without adding her own well wishes, writing in the comment section:

In light of the celebration of the actor, I thought back on how he tackled a traumatic arc earlier in Season 26, and I was fortunate enough to speak with him about Carisi getting his wake-up call. At the time, I also took a moment to pose a different sort of question as the wait continued for news on Law & Order: Organized Crime.

With Organized Crime's move to become available with a Peacock subscription, it's possible that Stabler and Co. will have fewer limits on language than they had on network TV. If Carisi turned up on OC following its move to Peacock, would he be the kind of guy to swear? Well, I asked Peter Scanavino that very question back in January, and he weighed in:

Honestly, with the work Carisi does (not to mention his ordeal in late 2024), why wouldn't he drop some expletives from time to time?! In all seriousness, it would be fun to see if any SVU characters were allowed to let loose a bit more on Organized Crime on Peacock. It's not even clear just yet if OC will push past NBC boundaries on the streamer, and there's no confirmation that anybody will cross over, but why not hope? The premiere date was announced as April 17, so the days are counting down.

Whether or not Carisi returns to Organized Crime once it debuts on Peacock, the actor has a lot to be proud of after all his years in the franchise. Scanavino reflected on his major arc of Season 26 when we spoke early this year, saying:

As a procedural, Law & Order: SVU doesn't always feature serialized storylines for characters, which actually led to complications when it came to Benson and Stabler's dynamic on SVU vs. their dynamic on Organized Crime. Carisi got one of those rare serialized storylines in Season 26, and I've been saying since the fall finale back in 2024 that Peter Scanavino nailed it.

If you want to revisit any of those older episodes of Law & Order: SVU, you can find every season so far streaming on Peacock as well as the first 25 seasons with a Hulu subscription. New Season 26 episodes air on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. As for Law & Order: Organized Crime... well, we can only wait to see if the tone and language will be any different on Peacock than on NBC.