One Chicago, NBC's sprawling shared universe of procedural dramas set in the Windy City,
has naturally experienced quite a bit of turnover. Here are the actors who left the One Chicago
franchise, and their reasons for doing so.
Gabriela Dawson could do everything on Chicago Fire. The sister of Chicago P.D.'s Antonio
Dawson, Gabby started her arc as the Paramedic in Charge for Ambulance 61.
Then, after briefly becoming a firefighter, she returned to her first love as a paramedic.
Gabby finally decided that Chicago wasn't for her, and moved to Puerto Rico to run a
rescue operation.
Actor Monica Raymund's exit was surprising because she'd been with Chicago Fire throughout
its first six seasons. As Raymund told the Chicago Tribune,
"I knew that my six-year contract was coming to an end and I felt like I was hungry to
explore a different role, a different story."
Leslie Shay, portrayed by Lauren German in the first two seasons of Chicago Fire, was
a capable paramedic who held her own in the tough world of Firehouse 51. A well-liked
character who was a fan favorite to many, it was shocking when Shay was killed off in
Chicago Fire's third season premiere.
Her death concluded a cliffhanger from the previous season, in which first responders
fell for a fire trap set by a serial arsonist.
From a creative standpoint, Shay died because the death of a central figure would provide
an emotional wallop to the audience. As executive producer Matt Olmstead told TVLine,
"Going into it, we knew [...] it had to be someone who was going to give us a big impact,
as opposed to going for a lesser-known character, which would equate to a pulled punch."
The producer revealed that he and the show's writers considered each and every major character,
ultimately going with Shay because, quote, "it affected the most people."
Peter Mills was something of an audience surrogate on Chicago Fire, with fans seeing the exciting
and often frightening world of big city firefighting through his eyes. Taking on the same job as
his late father, Mills was a rookie firefighter when the show began in 2012.
In the third season, he saved a life in his first call out, only to decide that what he
really wanted to do was work in his family's restaurant in North Carolina.
"Don't think for once second I don't know how lucky I've been. I will never forget that."
Actor Charlie Barnett found out he was about to lose his job from producers just before
the exit episode taped. Barnett told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune,
"I hadn't heard anything about it and then they pulled me into a room, sat me down, and
apologized."
Barnett went on to say that the writer on the show felt that his character had, quote,
"reached a plateau."
Steven R. McQueen joined Chicago Fire in its fourth season as Truck 81 firefighter and
paramedic Jimmy Borrelli. The character receives a big emotional arc when his brother perishes
in a fire, which causes Borrelli to blame Chief Boden.
The personal and workplace tension subsides when Borrelli is severely injured in an explosion,
which robbed him of an eye. The incident ended the career of Borrelli, as well as McQueen's
time on Chicago Fire, after just 24 episodes.
As executive producer Michael Brandt later explained, it wasn't an option to get rid
of Eamonn Walker, who has portrayed Chief Boden since the series started. Brandt told
TV line,
"Eamonn has been with us since Day 1. He was the first character we cast."
Jon Seda joined NBC's One Chicago franchise as Chief Investigator Antonio Dawson, a recurring
character on Chicago Fire, before the debut of Chicago P.D., where he was a main character.
Seda continued to be the link throughout Dick Wolf's universe of Windy City public servants,
leaving P.D. for the short-lived Chicago Justice in 2017. After that show's swift cancelation,
Seda and Dawson headed back to Chicago P.D. for another two years.
Early in the seventh season, Dawson, suffering from a relapse to a pill addiction, resigns
from the force and moves to Puerto Rico. According to a source close to the show who spoke to
Deadline, writers had done all that they could do with the character, creatively, and opted
to get rid of him.
The star of the ensemble drama Chicago P.D., Sophia Bush's image featured prominently in
promotional materials for the series, seeing as she was already famous from her time on
One Tree Hill.
And yet Bush had no choice but to leave the popular series where she'd spent four years
playing the complex Erin Lindsay, a teen criminal turned Intelligence Unit detective. Chicago
P.D. writers sent her off by having Lindsay accept an offer to work with the FBI in New
York.
"I need an address. Now."
Bush had a hard time working through the harsh Chicago winters, and said her body was, quote,
"falling apart," because she was so unhappy. Producers refused to let her out of her seven-year
contract, leaving Bush to issue an ultimatum. As Bush explained on Dax Shepard's Armchair
Expert podcast,
"I said, 'Okay, you can put me in the position of going quietly of my own accord or you can
put me in the position of suing the network to get out of my deal and I'll write an op-ed
for The New York Times and tell them why.'"
The producers eventually let Bush out of her deal.
Officer Sean Roman, a sometimes hot-headed patrol cop who runs a security company when
he's off duty, was transferred to Chicago P.D.'s 2-1 because he'd become romantically
involved with another officer.
Toward the end of Chicago P.D.'s third season, Roman is shot in the line of duty and seriously
wounded, hinting at a tragic end for his character. He ultimately pulls through, and given the
choice of transferring to semi-active duty or quitting the force, he chooses the latter
and moves to San Diego.
While the exit of his character and the means by which he did it were a surprise, it's apparently
what Chicago P.D. producers and actor Brian Geraghty had in mind all along. Back when
they were trying to cast Roman, producers wanted Geraghty in the role.
Geraghty was interested, but wanted a year-to-year contract, so he could leave the show when
he felt it was time to move on, and with enough advance warning to give Roman a proper sendoff.
Most of the action in Chicago Med, the hospital component of the One Chicago franchise, takes
place in the emergency room at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. Every day its doctors and
nurses work to save lives, with medical student Sarah Reese in the fray along with them.
What ultimately sends Dr. Reese away from Chicago Med and off to Texas is a personal
tiff with Dr. Charles, played by Oliver Platt, when he learns that Reese's father might be
a murderer.
By the time actress Rachel DiPillo started playing Dr. Reese on Chicago Med, she had
amassed plenty of TV credits. However, since leaving the Chicago shows in 2018, DiPillo
hasn't appeared in any movies or TV shows, and has mostly been a ghost on social media,
except for a few tweets in 2020. So while we may not know exactly why she left, it seems
like she left acting behind completely.
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