Topaz Award Recipient: Angie Harmon

Born in Dallas, Texas, Angie Harmon is best known for her starring role as Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael on NBC’s Emmy®‐winning drama Law & Order.

Angie recently wrapped production on the TNT hit drama “Rizzoli & Isles” where she played police detective Jane Rizzoli for which she won a 2015 People’s Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Actress. The show aired for seven seasons, with its final episode airing in September 2016.

Harmon has spent most of her life in front of the camera. Both of her parents were models, and Harmon began modeling when she was a baby. She won a model search at the age of 15 for the cover of Seventeen magazine. She also won a Spectrum Model Search contest, which lead to her successful modeling career and to her becoming a household name in 1990s. She worked as a runway model for Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Michael Kors, and Donna Karan and appeared on the covers of ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Allure, and Esquire.

Upon graduation, Harmon traveled between New York and Los Angeles, where she began to study acting. She made her feature film debut in the independent film Lawn Dogs, in which she appeared opposite Sam Rockwell for director John Duigan. The film screened at both the Toronto Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. Harmon made her network television series debut starring opposite Eric Roberts for one season as the rookie member of the FBI’s elite crime unit on ABC’s C‐16: FBI.

Angie Harmon returned to the small screen in Fall 2007 as the lead in ABC’s Women’s Murder Club as homicide detective Lindsay Boxer. Along with a medical examiner, newspaper reporter and a young assistant district attorney, she works to solve homicides. Based on a best‐selling novel by James Patterson. Women’s Murder Club was quickly nominated for a People’s Choice Award in the category of Best New Television Drama. Harmon was appointed UNICEF Ambassador in January 2013, and is committed to using her talent and recognition to fundraise, educate and advocate on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable children. For the past two years, she has appeared as the spokesperson for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s End Trafficking Project, raising awareness about child trafficking and mobilizing communities to take meaningful action to help protect children. She travelled to Nicaragua in January 2014 to bring attention to the horrors of child trafficking within the Central American country and across the globe. During her trip Harmon witnessed UNICEF programs to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse and spoke with adolescent girls and boys about their experiences. In addition to her work on End Trafficking, she has used her social media networks to garner support for UNICEF’s emergency relief efforts for children in Syria and the Philippines as well as promoting the iconic Trick‐or‐Treat for UNICEF campaign. Harmon is also on the board of The Alliance for Children's Rights & The Children's Institute. The Alliance for Children’s Rights works to provide free legal services to children who have been abused and neglected and as a result are living in foster care. The Children’s Institute, helps children in Los Angeles’s most challenged communities heal from the trauma of family and community violence, build the confidence and skills to break through the barriers of poverty, and grow up to lead healthy, productive lives. Harmon was recently recognized at the 39th annual Gracie Awards, for her charitable work off‐camera. She shared her award with three of the organizations she has worked with over the years – the Alliance for Children’s Rights, the Children’s Institute and UNICEF.

Harmon’s many film roles include the lead role of Abby” in the Sony Screen Gems feature film The Good Mother and a starring role opposite Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan in the independent feature film Seraphim Falls. She was also seen in Fun With Dick and Jane and Agent Cody Banks. Harmon is a UNICEF Ambassador.