Kadia Saraf

Saraf was born in Bern, Switzerland to a Yemeni-Israel father and a Swiss mother. She moved to Northern Israel at the age of 4 and remained there at age of 14 before moving back to Switzerland. She got a degree in Structural Engineering from BBM in Kreuzlingen. She then moved to Tel Aviv where she served as an Ambulance driver at MDA, Israel's national medical emergency service and trained in Kenpo Jitsu. I won the Israeli National Championship title in 2001. In 2004 she moved to New York where she started her acting career. She can speak English, Hebrew, German, Swiss German, a little French and a little Arabic^[1]

Saraf made her on screen debut in an episode of the comedy drama series Rescue Me. She was never on a TV set prior to appearing on this show.^[2] She has made one-off appearances in the police procedural shows Blue Blood and FBI: International.^[3] Her biggest role so far has been playing U.S. Attorney Anya Avital in the crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and its spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime.^[4] She has recently had a starring role as Detective Claudette Wallace in the crime drama series Dexter: Resurrection.^[5][6][7]

Saraf is married to Terry Serpico who she met on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Together they have three children. She is an advocate for the deaf community. She has been studying American Sign Language.^[8]