When Elisabeth was 17 -- during her self-described "wild" years -- she traveled to Miami to see if she could make a go at modeling. Not much came of it, and Elisabeth moved to Bronxville, New York, where she attended Sarah Lawrence College. There, Rohm studied writing and European history, thinking that she would pursue a career in a related field -- but things turned out differently. To make friends in her freshman year, Elisabeth auditioned for the play Bondage, and was cast; as soon as she was onstage, she was hooked.

Once she had her bachelor's degree, Elisabeth became an assistant to an agent in New York. That served as a springboard to minor theater roles, and Elisabeth even had an uncredited appearance in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997).

Next, Elisabeth landed a recurring role on the soap opera One Life to Live, from 1997 to 1998. In 1998, she got a role on the made-for-TV movie The Invisible Man, produced by Dick Wolf, while 1999 saw Elisabeth in two miniseries: NBC's The '60s and the BBC's Eureka Street.

That same year, Elisabeth landed her longest-running role to that point, appearing as Kate Lockley on Angel, the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff, from 1999 to 2001. In 2000, Elisabeth starred in the TNT Wall Street drama series, Bull.

Elisabeth Rohm's breakout role came in 2001, when she was picked by Dick Wolf (who was familiar with her work on The Invisible Man) to replace Angie Harmon on Law & Order. As Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn, Elisabeth became the latest in a long line of brainy and beautiful sidekicks to A.D.A. Jack McCoy, played by veteran actor Sam Waterston. "Sam Waterston has been a great teacher and friend," Elisabeth would later admit, "who has taught me about taking risks."

In spite of the good experience on the show, Elisabeth may be leaving Law & Order. Although she's committed to a few more episodes, she'll then be free to pursue other opportunities, such as the Sandra Bullock vehicle Miss Congeniality 2 (to be released in 2005) and a number of upcoming TV projects.

In the meantime, Elisabeth is dating MSNBC's legal correspondent, Dan Abrams, and splits her time between Los Angeles and New York, where she is active singing, writing and supporting local artists.