Time on show 2000–present Portrayed by Tamara Tunie Title Medical examiner | Preceded by Elizabeth Rodgers Creator Dick Wolf | |
 | ||
Seasons 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Credited appearances 221 episodes (SVU)
1 episode (TBJ)
1 episode (CF)
223 episodes (total) Family Unnamed sister
Unnamed husband
Unnamed daughter First appearance November 24, 2000; (episode 2.06: "Noncompliance") Similar George Huang, Fin Tutuola, Donald Cragen, John Munch, Kim Greylek | ||
Dr. Melinda Warner is a fictional character on the show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, played by Tamara Tunie. Tunie was originally a recurring cast member until she was added to the main credits in Season 7. She became a recurring cast member again in Season 13.
Character overview
As the medical examiner, Warner often works with Manhattan's Special Victims Unit by providing the detectives with forensic evidence to support their cases. She was a doctor in the United States Air Force, and served two tours of duty at Ramstein Air Base during the Gulf War before she began work as a medical examiner in NYC.
Warner has periodically taken on a more active role in the SVU squad. For example, in one episode she aids Detective Elliot Stabler in locating a missing girl who was diagnosed with leukemia. Later in the same episode, she performs impromptu life-saving surgery on a man who had been shot by his own son during a bank robbery and hostage standoff. Shortly afterward, she shoots the son with the gun Stabler gave to her as the son was intent on committing suicide by cop.
Warner aids ADA Casey Novak in forming a case against a New York psychiatrist who tortured prisoners in Iraq. Warner and the precinct's forensic psychiatrist, Dr. George Huang, argue about the legality and integrity of what the psychiatrist did, and Warner convinces Novak that the psychiatrist could be charged with criminally negligent homicide as the doctor knew that she was harming the prisoners. Warner and Novak succeed in getting the doctor's license suspended.
Although well liked among the SVU squad, she and Stabler get into an argument in the Season 11 episode "Perverted," in which Detective Olivia Benson is suspected in a homicide investigation because her DNA is on the murder weapon. Stabler believes that Warner botched the DNA test and needed to retest it. Warner stands up for herself by saying she did retest it and she didn't make a mistake and somehow Olivia's DNA is on that weapon. Warner finally figures out that the blood on the knife was altered to make it test like Benson's DNA. The detectives were then able to trace the crime to the lab where a doctor was altering DNA to frame people.
In the Season 11 finale "Shattered", Warner nearly dies in her own morgue when anthropologist Dr. Sophie Gerard accidentally shoots her during a standoff with the detectives after suffering a psychotic nervous breakdown. Warner talks Benson and ADA Jo Marlowe through life-saving techniques before Gerard allows Warner to leave and seek medical attention. Warner makes a wisecrack to the waiting media to back off because she's not dead yet thanks to Benson and Marlowe. Warner's return to work is not established, but her first appearance back on screen since the shooting was in the Season 12 episode "Merchandise". Warner has made sporadic appearances since then, although she is frequently mentioned.
Dr. Warner is married and has one daughter, who was mentioned twice on the show, and a dog. Warner states that her husband is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. She also mentions having a sister who is a buyer at Saks.