The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star explains she was preparing to start her education in the medical field after dreaming of becoming a doctor since she was a young kid when she caught the acting bug.

She tells U.S. breakfast show Today, "I was very good in all the maths and sciences. I took the whole college prep trajectory and then in my senior year of high school I decided that performing was something that I had always done as a kid and I loved it... I said, 'This makes people happy when I do this, I feel good, I get to pretend and explore other areas and learn so much'."

Tunie ironically went on to portray a medical examiner on the hit crime procedural show and credits her childhood for preparing her for the role.

She continues, "I grew up in a funeral home, born and raised, and everyone was always like, 'Well, what was that like?' and I was like, 'It was normal', because it's all I knew. I guess you could kind of say it prepared me to play the medical examiner on Law & Order: SVU."