Liza Colón-Zayas may have just won her first Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Tina in FX ‘s streaming series The Bear , but the star has been gracing TV screens for years in roles across shows like Law & Order: SVU , David Makes Man , In Treatment , New York Undercover , and Third Watch to name a few. When TV Insider caught up with the star for The Bear ‘s Season 3 launch, she took a walk down memory lane, offering some insight and behind-the-scenes details about the roles that led to her success as Tina in the acclaimed series. Among one of the first in this list of memories is SVU , in which she’s appeared three times.
In the first episode, she recalls playing a maid who happens across a crime scene. “I prepared for that by looking at the most gruesome, awful things the interwebs has to offer so I could have those images in my brain,” Colón-Zayas says of her first role on the crime hit. She also had a two-episode run as Dolores Rodriguez, a woman whose son has “been missing for 10 years and she has never moved or changed anything.
” “That was a rough one,” Colón-Zayas admits, “But Mariska Hargitay is my hero.” As Colón-Zayas continues to reflect on roles in the video, above, she delves into the stories behind her casting in New York Undercover where she remembers, “ Dick Wolf was there and during my audition, there was a mouse running back and forth during the scene and somehow we just rolled with it.�.