American actress Elisabeth R?hm was born on April 27, 1973 in D?sseldorf, Germany. Her family moved to New York before she turned a year old; up to now she maintains dual German and American citizenship. She attended Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, where she took up writing and European history.
She made her acting debut in 1997, with an uncredited role in the Woody Allen film Deconstructing Harry. Her first major role came in the same year, when she played the role of Dorothy Hayes in the daytime soap One Life to Live. In 1999, she signed on for her first regular prime time television role, joining the cast of the then new series Angel. She played police detective Kate Lockley, who is initially romantically involved with Angel (David Boreanaz) until she finds out about him being a vampire. Later in the series, she becomes obsessed and eventually hates vampires, including Angel. She left the series in 2001. In 2000, she joined the cast of the short-lived series Bull. The series, which revolved around the personal and professional lives of investment bankers in Wall Street, saw R?hm play the role of Alison Jeffers. The series was cancelled in the middle of the first season.
R?hm is, however, perhaps best known for her role in the drama series Law & Order. She joined the show in 2001 as ADA Serena Southerlyn, replacing Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon). She often is at odds with Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) over their strategies in cases where she perceives the crime as a product of social cir!$#!#stances. Her character was eventually fired by Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson), with whom she shared a particularly antagonistic relationship, because she tends to get sympathetic towards defendants.
Her most recent television role was in the short-lived drama Big Shots, where she played a recurring role as Alex Mason.