Det. Nina Cassady is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 on the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 crime drama Law & Order

Law & Order

Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

, portrayed by Milena Govich

Milena Govich

-Biography:She was born in Norman, Cleveland County, Oklahoma. Both of her parents, Dr. Bruce Michael Govich and Dr. Marilyn Green Govich, are professors of music: Bruce worked at University of Oklahoma and Marilyn currently works at the University of Central Oklahoma...

. Cassady, the first, and only, female detective in the original Law & Order series, appeared in the first episode of the seventeenth season. Cassady worked alongside Det. Ed Green

Ed Green

Edward "Ed" Green is a fictional character on the NBC crime drama Law & Order, created by Rene Balcer and portrayed by Jesse L. Martin.-Character overview:...

 (Jesse L. Martin

Jesse L. Martin

Jesse L. Martin is an American theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for originating the role of Tom Collins in the Broadway theatrical production of Rent, and for his portrayal of NYPD Detective Ed Green on the NBC drama television series Law & Order.-Early life:Martin, the third of...

).

Govich initially appeared on Law & Order as a bartender in the sixteenth season episode "Flaw".

Character development

She was transferred to the 27th Precinct after a shootout at a beauty parlor, which led to the press nicknaming her "Detective Beauty Queen." Other episodes revealed that she was born in Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

, New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, came from a family of police officers, has a brother named James (Jimmy) who is also in law enforcement, and attended Sunday school

Sunday school

Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...

 for six years.

In L&O

She is initially looked down upon for having less experience than her fellow homicide detectives, and her promotion to homicide is seen as a fluke after her high profile shootout in a beauty parlor. She ends up with the nickname "Detective Beauty Queen," which annoys her.

In the seventeenth season opener, there is tension with her boss, Lt. Anita Van Buren

Anita Van Buren

Lt. Anita Van Buren is a fictional character on NBC's long running police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order, portrayed by S. Epatha Merkerson. By episode count, she is the longest-running character on the show...

 (S. Epatha Merkerson

S. Epatha Merkerson

S. Epatha Merkerson is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has won a Golden Globe, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Obie Award and four NAACP Image Awards. She has also received two Tony Award nominations...

), who states that Van Buren had a "hand-picked" replacement for Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina

Dennis Farina

Dennis Farina is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty...

), a much older and more experienced detective. Van Buren appears to have come to accept Cassady, however, at least up until the season finale "Family Hour". After Cassady botches an interrogation by losing her temper and goading a suspect who was close to a confession (the suspect is enraged to the point that he throws a chair through a glass window), Van Buren chastises her for acting unprofessionally after eight months on the job, suggesting that Cassady may not have a future in homicide at the 27th Detective Squad. While she later recovers her mistake with a strong performance on the witness stand, Cassady is no longer a character on the show at the start of the eighteenth season and is succeeded by Det. Cyrus Lupo

Cyrus Lupo

Det. Cyrus "Lupes" Lupo is a fictional character on the long-running NBC series Law & Order, played by Jeremy Sisto. He replaced Nina Cassady, who was written out of the show due to Milena Govich's departure from the cast.-Character development:...

. No explanation for her character's leaving is given.

Cassady is of Irish descent, as is revealed after a famous actor (played by Chevy Chase

Chevy Chase

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

) uses anti-Semitic slurs against her while being interrogated, erroneously believing her to be Jewish.