LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT’s Jamie Gray Hyder Confirms Exit: Season 23 ‘Got a Lot Less Colorful’

Jamie Gray Hyder has confirmed Give Me My Remote’s report that she’s leaving LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT on social media.

“Kat’s outta the bag…,” she wrote. “#SVU23 Just got a lot less colorful.”

She continued with the following statement:

“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm Kat’s departure from the squad room. The decision was made above my pay grade. And wouldn’t have been my choice. But hey — that’s show biz for ya.

To anyone who felt represented by any part of Kat’s being or mission, please know that you will always have representation in me.

Thank you to the SVUniverse for welcoming me with open arms. It’s been an experience that I grown from greatly, and well never forget.”

Previously, Hyder had expressed hope to stay with the show for the rest of its run. (It’s already renewed through season 24.)

“Storylines and shows evolve and change, and you never know what direction they’re going to go in,” Hyder told GMMR in 2020. “If I do have the opportunity to stay with the show for that whole duration, I consider myself extremely lucky and I eagerly anticipate learning more about Kat as the seasons go on.”

Hyder joined the long-running series in season 21 (and was promoted to a regular the same year) as Officer-turned-Detective Kat Tamin, who quickly transferred over to join the unit.

“It was daunting at first, thinking this is such a huge monumental achievement for all the people involved,” Hyder said at the time, of joining during a year the show broke the record for longest-running primetime drama series. “I kind of get wrapped up in that without having been a part of anything that made it what it is. But I felt I had to really come to this character, this set, and join this show with a lot of reverence for what came before me.”

“And perhaps that’s a difference between myself and Kat,” she continued. “Despite both coming into new scenarios, I—as Jamie, the actor—wanted to make sure that I really appreciated and understood the way that this show works, and the vibe, so that I’m not coming in and interrupting anything, but rather enhancing or adding to it. Kat, on the other hand, is sort of used to working a certain way. And it’s been harder for her to sort of shake that and become part of an existing unit. We’ll see her get more and more comfortable with that as time goes on, but she still has a little bit of trouble with it.”

Kat was also the show’s only current canonically queer regular character. (Former SVU star BD Wong’s Huang was gay, but he last appeared on the series in 2015.)

“I think that there’s a lot of fans who felt underrepresented by the show in the lack of LGBTQ characters in the lead positions,” Hyder previously shared. “So I think that this felt like a really big win for a lot of our fans and I am extremely honored to be the one to check that box for them. I do not take the responsibility lightly.”

Hyder’s co-star Demore Barnes will also be departing the NBC drama. Both actors will bid farewell to the show in SVU’s two-hour premiere.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Season Premiere, Thursday, September 23, 8/7c, NBC

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