Mariska Hargitay won two Emmys for My Mom Jayne on September 5, adding a directing award to a career many viewers know through Olivia Benson. The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star made her first feature film as a director about her mother, actor Jayne Mansfield.
Hargitay won Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program. She also shared the award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special as one of the film’s producers.
The wins come nine days before she hosts the main Emmy Awards telecast on September 14. Her earlier Primetime Emmy was for playing Benson in 2006; these two recognize her work behind the camera.
“I got to know my mother through telling the story. It’s a gift that’s indescribable,” Hargitay said while accepting the documentary special award.
Why Hargitay made My Mom Jayne
Mansfield died in a car crash at 34, when Hargitay was three. In the film, Hargitay talks with her siblings and looks through family photographs, letters and home movies to learn about the mother she barely knew.
Her siblings Jayne Marie Mansfield, Mickey Hargitay Jr., Zoltan Hargitay and Tony Cimber contribute their memories. The film also includes her stepmother, Ellen Hargitay, and Mansfield’s former press secretary, Raymond “Rusty” Strait. Their accounts help her learn about Mansfield at home as well as on screen.
Hargitay decided to make the documentary during the pandemic in 2020. At an April 2026 screening, she explained that preparing meant working through her own feelings before she could approach the story clearly as a filmmaker. She wanted to ask questions about her mother without letting childhood hurt determine every answer.
“I was ready to tell this story. I was ready to go on this search,” she said during that discussion.
She worked with a producer she already knew well: Trish Adlesic. At the same screening, Adlesic said they had known each other for almost 28 years and described protecting Hargitay’s vision while helping her make the film. Their earlier collaborations include I Am Evidence, which Adlesic co-directed and Hargitay produced.
My Mom Jayne premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and runs 106 minutes. Its HBO debut followed on June 27, 2025. Hargitay directed and produced, Adlesic also produced, and Lauran Bromley served as executive producer.
Olivia Benson and the Emmy she won in 2006
Hargitay has played Benson since SVU began in 1999. Her first Primetime Emmy came in 2006 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, with the Season 7 episode “911.” She received eight consecutive nominations in that category from 2004 through 2011.
The documentary was her first feature as a director, not her first directing job. She had already directed episodes of SVU and worked as an executive producer on the series. My Mom Jayne put her own family, rather than a fictional investigation, in front of her camera.
NBC will revisit three of her SVU performances on September 10.
The marathon starts with “Charisma” at 8 p.m. ET, followed by “911” at 9 p.m. and “Undercover” at 10 p.m. The three episodes come from Seasons 6, 7 and 9, giving fans a way to revisit Benson’s earlier cases before Hargitay hosts the Emmys.
When she hosts the Emmys — and returns as Benson
Her next awards-night appearance is as host: the September 14 ceremony airs live on NBC and Peacock at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
After that, Hargitay returns as Benson in SVU Season 28. New episodes begin October 8 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC and stream the following day on Peacock.
Read more about the documentary on our My Mom Jayne page.
