Law & Orderalum Camryn Manheim has surprised fans by recently debuting her weight-loss transformation
Last week, Manheim, 65 — best known for her Emmy-winning role as attorney Ellenor Frutt on ABC’s celebrated Nineties legal drama, The Practice— stepped out for the opening night of Rosie O’Donnell’s off-Broadway autobiographical show, Rosie O’Donnell: Common Knowledge
In glasses, blue jeans, a purple-patterned top and a statement necklace, Manheim looked drastically different from her early career days when posing for photos
The actor’s slimmed-down figurehas not been lost on fans, as several expressed amazement over her new look
“Usually when they say someone is ‘unrecognizable,’ they’re instantly recognizable to me. Lol but not this one!” one person responded on X to an article about Manheim’s dramatic transformation. “Camryn has always been so beautiful, but she looks like a totally different person now!”
“Get out…that is not her. No way!” a second insisted, while a third added, “I think she looks great!!!!!”
Manheim, who starred as Lieutenant Kate Dixon on the flagship Law & Orderfor three seasons, from 2022 to 2024, has long been open about her personal struggles with her weight
In 1994, she created and starred in her one-woman off-Broadway show, Wake Up, I’m Fat!, which featured funny and poignant stories about navigating life in a society obsessed with thinness. She later adapted the show into her best-selling memoir of the same name, published in 1999
“Almost everything I do is related to being fat,” Manheim told Ability Magazine’s disability advocate Chet Cooper in the late Nineties. “So on one hand, I can say that being fat is the thing I hate most about myself, but on the other hand, I know that it defines me and is an important part of who I am, and I really like who I am.”
After accepting her first Emmy in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, the Ghost Whispererstar dedicated the win to “all the fat girls.”
“I’ve always felt like a misfit,” Manheim said, “and to get this award from my peers is such a huge victory.”
Reflecting on her bold declaration years later in a 2019 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said: “I’ve made my mark by being vocal. I just play roles that have nothing to do with my size, but with my power and spirit. It’s who I am at the core of my being. That’s what’s happening in the second tier of my career.”
