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Here's Why You Recognize Ryan Eggold, Law & Order's Latest Guest Star
Ryan Eggold will play Det. Vincent Riley's (Reid Scott) sibling on the "Big Brother" episode of Law & Order Season 24, but where else have you seen him?
A brother of Detective Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) is making his debut on Law & Order in Season 24's third episode — and he may look familiar to many viewers.
Actor Ryan Eggold, who played dedicated doctor Max Goodwin on New Amsterdam from 2018 to 2023, is making a return to NBC as Riley's brother in Thursday night's episode, aptly titled “Big Brother.”
According to the episode synopsis, the detective’s personal and professional life will collide when his brother, Matt Riley, “is connected to a murder investigation.”
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While the exact nature of Matt’s involvement in the case remains unclear, Law & Order showrunner Rick Eid told NBC Insider before the start of Season 24 that it would be a “pretty interesting episode” aimed at pulling back the curtain on Detective Riley’s personal life.
“You’ll know a lot more about him than you did before,” Eid teased.
Scott echoed the comments in his own interview with NBC Insider before the season premiere, revealing that fans will see the “familial challenges that Riley faces that really sort of shape who he is and how he approaches his job."
“You learn a little bit more about his backstory and sort of see the things that shape his personality,” Scott added.
The episode also gave Scott the chance to team up with Eggold, whom he described as “an old, dear friend of mine.”
“So it’s really fun to be reunited with him and he gives a fantastic performance. And his character and mine could not be more different,” Scott said.
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What else has Ryan Eggold been in?
Eggold, who has a long history of playing dynamic and complex characters, is perhaps best known for his long-running role as Dr. Max Goodwin on NBC's New Amsterdam. Many may also recognize Eggold from his stint on NBC’s action-packed international crime drama The Blacklist and its spinoff The Blacklist: Redemption, in which Eggold played school teacher and assassin Tom Keen.
Eggold, a graduate of the University of Southern California's theater program, got his start in the 2000s with guest-starring roles on TV shows like Brothers & Sisters, Veronica Mars and Entourage, before landing the role of crush-worthy English teacher Ryan Matthews on 90210.
His long-running career has also included film roles in 2024’s Junction, the crime comedy drama BlacKkKlansman, and Tyler Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues.
On New Amsterdam, Eggold's charming hospital medical director was committed to improving the hospital and the patient experience, even if it meant making some controversial moves during the drama series' five-season run, which ended in early 2023.
“It is bittersweet,” Eggold told TODAY in 2022 of the show’s final season. “I feel really proud of the show that we’ve been able to do, the stories that we’ve been able to tell and this message you know that you can’t really as one person change the world, but you maybe can affect someone’s life or someone’s day positively and that ripple effect can change the world.”
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As for his work in The Blacklist, Eggold told Entertainment Weekly in 2017 of the complex roll: “I will say I'm very grateful to have played such an arc, such an evolution of character, to play a character who is himself somewhat of an actor, a chameleon, and putting on these different masks, particularly in the early seasons. I got to play a lot.”
To see Eggold in action on Season 24 of Law & Order, watch the “Big Brother" episode, debuting Thursday October 17 at 8/7c p.m. on NBC and streaming on Peacock beginning the next day.
— Additional reporting by Stephanie Gomulka
