Law & Order - My Chance to be an Extra

In honor of the series finale of Law & Order, I'm posting this letter I wrote to the show's casting agency several years ago, as past of my unsuccessful attempt to join the thousands of other New Yorkers who have "Law & Order extra" on their resume (Granted, most of them were aspiring actors, not aspiring lawyers, as I happened to be at the time.) Looking over the letter now, I may have overemphasized the influence the show had in pursuing my legal career, but I can't overstate how many times I flipped to whatever L & O rerun was playing at a given hour in order to decompress after a long day in the office. So, in some way you could say the show advanced my career immeasurably. Whatever I wrote it didn't seem to help my cause. Until tonight, I was still waiting for that casting call. Now I know that it's just not meant to be.

DUM DUM.


May 22, 2007


Heather Reidenbach
Central Casting New York
875 Sixth Avenue, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Ms. Reidenbach,


Since moving to New York in the wake of September 11th 6 ½ years ago, I have watched countless episodes of Law & Order. The show inspired both my decision to pursue a legal career (I just completed my second year of law school at NYU), and my decision to focus my studies on criminal litigation. I also routinely discuss the issues raised in Law & Order episodes with my law school classmates and professors.

I am writing to you to express my interest in being cast as a background actor in an episode of Law & Order. I am not a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, and do not plan on pursuing an acting career. But, I have long considered the possibility of an appearance on Law & Order to be a life objective of mine, and would like to realize this goal while I am still a law student. Of course I would be thrilled to speak a line or two in an episode, but I would truly be happy with any role that you considered appropriate.

I have enclosed two headshots for your review, and look forward to hearing from you in the near future. My contact information is as follows:

Ariel Glasner
aglasner@nyu.edu
917-701-5530
230 West 99th Street
Apt. 3E
NY, NY 10025

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

Ariel Glasner