Peter Scanavino Family Life Mirrors That of His ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Character’s

Actor Peter Scanavino has been on many crime lovers' televisions since he signed on to play Detective-turned-Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Dominick Carisi on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Fans of the long-running show have seen Peter's character go from a no-nonsense, play-by-the-rules, single detective to an even more no-nonsense, play-by-the-rules lawyer and family man.

During Carisi's time on SVU, he fell in love with his partner, Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish). In Season 24, the pair married, and he became a stepfather to her children, Jessie and Billie, and welcomed a son, Dominick "Nicky" Carisi III, in Season 25.

Carisi's at-home life mirrors Peter's. The actor is a husband and father of three and has leaned on his SVU co-stars for moral support.

Here's what to know about Peter's off-screen marriage.

Peter and his wife, Lisha Bai, have been married since 2011. The couple haven't shared publicly how they met, but they're both artists who express themselves through different outlets. Per NBC Insider, Lisha is a mixed-medium artist who has had exhibits in New York City, London, San Francisco. In June 2021, Peter celebrated his wife launching her website, Studio Archive Project. According to the website's Instagram, it features "accessible art from the studio archives of established artists."

Peter and Lisha's marriage has mostly been kept away from the spotlight. The actor only has one photo of them together on his Instagram account, which he shared in December 2019 during their trip to New Art Dealers in Miami, Fla. Peter also doesn't frequent Lisha's Instagram often, though he has made a few cameos. His most recent appearance on his wife's account came in June 2021 when she posted several photos of him and said she couldn't envision not being by the actor's side.

"Couldn’t imagine being on this ride with anyone else," Lisha captioned the post. "@peterscanavino thank you for making every day fun."

Peter and Lisha's decade-plus marriage also includes their three children. The Deception actor keeps his children even further away from the public eye than he does his marriage. However, Peter has shared how his Law & Order: Special Victims Unit family, especially the show's leading lady, Mariska Hargitay, keeps him in line as a parent. In January 2025, Peter revealed the "very good advice" about parenting that the mother of three offered him and Lisha.

"She gave a very good parenting piece of advice to me and my wife, which was, 'don’t threaten a punishment to your children that you’re not willing to carry out,'" the actor told Today. "If you say, ‘One more time, we’re going to go home,’ don’t say that unless you’re really prepared to do it. And I think that’s been a very good lesson and rule to have as a parent.”

While he, fortunately, has several working parents on his set (his TV wife, Kelli Giddish, also has three kiddos at home, and Ice-T has three), Peter admitted to Today that juggling parenting and his career can get overwhelming. He shared that he uses his real-life struggles to connect to his character, Carisi, whom he's played since Season 16.

"I’ve got a lot of responsibilities in my regular life, as well as on the show,” Peter said. "So, everything is just kind of chaotic, and I think that mirrors a lot of what’s happening with the show, where you don’t have a lot of time to just kind of sit and slow things down and reflect on what’s going on.”