Mariska Hargitay Turns Into Real-Life Princess To Celebrate Daughter’s Birthday

Mariska Hargitay gave her daughter quite the birthday to remember.

The 50-year-old actress put on a pink dress for a costume party to celebrate Amaya’s third birthday. Hargitay played a princess while her husband wore a dragon costume. Amaya dressed up like Belle from Beauty and the Beast for the party, which was held at New York eatery Sugar and Plumm.

The party sounded like a rocking affair. The New York Post’s Page Six reported that the gang of kids burst into song when “Let It Go” from the Disney movie Frozen played, and before heading home the family picked up a handful of balloons and took a stroll on Amsterdam Avenue.

While she’s been playing the family role at home, Mariska Hargitay has been extending herself professionally. This year she moved behind the camera for the first time, directing an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

“I’m thrilled to be directing,” Hargitay said in a statement. “It’s been a goal of mine for a long time, and it’s quite an experience to see it realized. My respect for the process of making this show and telling these important stories deepens with every scene we shoot. I have always been so honored to work with this cast and crew, but never more so than now, as a director collaborating in a new way.”

Mariska is also reaching out to help others. She has created the Joyful Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization that works with sex abuse victims, and recently added her star power to a fight for victims rights in Michigan.

Mariska Hargitay joined Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to announce legislation making it easier to identify rapists through DNA testing. There has been a backlog of this testing in Detroit, with as many as 11,000 DNA kits that were never properly tested in a lab.