Angela Michelle Harmon (born August 10, 1972) is an American actress and model. She was a professional model before gaining international fame for her roles in Baywatch Nights and as New York A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael on Law & Order. She also starred as Detective Jane Rizzoli on the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles.
She was born on August 10, 1972 in Highland Park, Texas, the daughter of Daphne Demar (née Caravageli) and Lawrence Paul "Larry" Harmon, a hospital information network executive in Dallas, Texas. Her father has German and Irish ancestry, while her mother is of Greek descent. In an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, Harmon found that she had a German ancestor who served in George Washington's army during the Revolutionary War, and that ancestor later acquired land in Mercer County, Kentucky. The land is still owned by a distant branch of her family.
Harmon worked as a child model, and in 1987 won a Seventeen modeling contest. She attended Highland Park High School until 1990, where she was a member of the Highland Belles. She won a Spectrum Model Search contest shortly afterward, subsequently pursued a successful modeling career, and became well known in the early 1990s. She worked as a runway model for Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, and Donna Karan and appeared on the covers of ELLE, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire. She is signed with IMG Models in New York City.