Angela Michelle Harmon (born August 10, 1972) is an American actress and model. She won Seventeen's modeling contest in 1987 at age 15, signed with IMG Models, and appeared on covers for magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Esquire. Her acting breakthrough came with the role of Ryan McBride on Baywatch Nights (1995–1997), and she earned four Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for playing Abbie Carmichael on Law & Order (1998–2001). Harmon also appeared in a number of film roles, which notably include Barbara Gordon in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) and Ronica Miles in Agent Cody Banks (2003). Following the roles of Rose in the acclaimed-film Seraphim Falls (2006) and Lindsay Boxer in the short-lived series Women's Murder Club (2007–2008), Harmon earned praise for playing Jane Rizzoli on the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles (2010–2016), and won the Gracie Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama Series or Special in 2012 and the People's Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Actress in 2015. She has starred in a number of Lifetime network's original projects, which include the biographical special Video Voyeur (2002) and the critically-acclaimed feature Living Proof (2008). In 2021, she signed an exclusive multi-picture deal with Lifetime. Early life She was born in the Dallas suburb of Highland Park, Texas, the daughter of Daphne Demar (née Caravageli) and Lawrence Paul "Larry" Harmon, a hospital information network executive in Dallas, Texas. Her father has German and Irish ancestry, while her mother is of Greek descent. In an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, Harmon found that she had a German ancestor who served in George Washington's army during the American Revolutionary War, and that ancestor later acquired land in Mercer County, Kentucky. The land is still owned by a distant branch of her family. Career Harmon worked as a child model, and in 1987 won a Seventeen modeling contest. She attended Highland Park High School until 1990, where she was a member of the Highland Belles. She won a Spectrum Model Search contest shortly afterward, subsequently pursued a successful modeling career, and became well known in the early 1990s. She worked as a runway model for Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, and Donna Karan and appeared on the covers of ELLE, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire. She is signed with IMG Models in New York City. Harmon began acting in 1995 after being