There are more departures from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, headlined by Mariska Hargitay, this time behind the scenes. Writer/executive producer Julie Martin and director/executive producer Norberto Barba are leaving the executive producing team of the venerable NBC crime drama from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, which was just renewed for a record 27th season, sources tell Deadline. Barba will continue as a director, I hear.
Reps for NBC and Wolf Entertainment declined comment.
As Deadline reported exclusively earlier this month, recent SVU cast additions Juliana Martinez and Octavio Pisano also are leaving as series regulars after one and three seasons, respectively.
The changes come amid another round of tough renewals at the broadcast networks accompanied with cost-cutting mandates, including for all Wolf Entertainment dramas at NBC.
Additionally, SVU is undergoing a change at the helm, with Michele Fazekas joining as new showrunner, the first woman to run the veteran procedural. She replaced David Graziano.
Martin is a Law & Order universe veteran who has worked on a string of series for almost two decades, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, Law & Order: LA and, most recently Law & Order: SVU where she was for the past 14 seasons as co-executive and subsequently executive producer.
Barba also is a Wolf Entertainment veteran who worked on FBI before joining SVU as director/executive producer in 2019 for the past five seasons.
Law & Order: SVU is also executive produced by Dick Wolf, Hargitay, Norberto Barba, Kenneth Brown and Peter Jankowski. The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
