A “long-time cast member has exited ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.’ Raúl Esparza has left the long-running NBC procedural after six seasons, EW has learned exclusively,” reports Natalie Abrams in a scoop for Entertainment Weekly.

Esparza’s final appearance on the show was in the episode that ran tonight, Wednesday, Feb. 7th. He played assistant district attorney Rafael Barba in the series.

Reports the Hollywood Reporter, “‘Chicago Justice’ alum Philip Winchester, who played Chicago-based assistant state’s attorney Peter Stone, is joining ‘SVU’ as an assistant district attorney. Winchester made his debut in Wednesday’s episode and has now been promoted to series regular for season 19 and beyond.”

In this very short video that we found on YouTube, Esparza answers a fan’s question: “What was your first job?”