In theory, a show like “Chicago Fire” should be able to run, essentially, forever. After all, the show is executive-produced by Dick Wolf, the television whiz who has kept -from-worst-to-best/ on the air for decades straight. “Chicago Fire” follows the lives of a group of firefighters and paramedics who operate out of Firehouse 51, a fictional division of the Chicago Fire Department. They fall in love, fight fires, find people to help, and fight like family — and there’s no reason to think Chicago will stop having fires anytime soon, so this story engine is an infinite one.
Like any good procedural, the show has a sprawling cast to match its many storylines. Unfortunately, as any fan of procedurals knows, when you keep a show going indefinitely, your actors start to get restless. That’s why numerous doctors have died in some pretty stupid ways on “Grey’s Anatomy,” and it’s partially why “Chicago Fire” has dealt with some pretty big cast changes, too. Many important characters have exited the show over its fourteen seasons; some have left for story reasons, but others have taken their leave because their actors wanted a chance to do something else after spending years at Firehouse 51. These are the biggest character who left “Chicago Fire.”
Teri Reeves (Hallie Thomas)
NBC
The first shocking “Chicago Fire” exit came during the show’s first season. Teri Reeves played Dr. Hallie Thomas, the girlfriend of Jesse Spencer’s lead character Matt Casey, when the show first premiered, and she was a regular presence in the hospital where Firehouse 51 frequently brought patients. Their romance was one of the show’s biggest storylines in the first season. Would they get married and have kids, or would they go their separate ways? Reeves told SheKnows that, either way, she was excited to dive into Hallie’s backstory. “She comes from wealth, but it comes out she’s really down to earth and she fights for what she believes in and what she loves,” she said. “She’s warm and generous; she’s like the woman I would like to be.”
In the finale of the first season, answering a fire call at the hospital, Casey and crew found Hallie unconscious in a storage cage. By the time they dragged her out of the burning building, it was too late. Ultimately, Hallie turns out to have been killed before the fire, which was an attempt to cover up her murder. Through Hallie’s death, “Chicago Fire” fans learned that no one was ever really safe on this show.
Lauren German (Leslie Shay)
NBC
While Hallie’s death was certainly shocking in the first season of “Chicago Fire,” it wasn’t until the show’s second season that we lost a member of the show’s core cast. Lauren German played a paramedic named Leslie Shay throughout the first two seasons of the show, an integral character involved in many of the show’s storylines. In the second-season finale, however, a fire at a boarding school erupted while most of the cast was attending the wedding of Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker). Shay was left to try to save people on her own, and it didn’t go well for her. Through the power of flashbacks, German came back for a few episodes of season 3, but she hasn’t been seen in Chicago since.
Speaking with TVLine, executive producer Matt Olmstead explained the reasoning behind the devastating decision. “We knew if we were going to do it, 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,” he said. “So, as opposed to approaching it with timidity, we thought we’d go for it.”
Thankfully, though fans were heartbroken by Shay’s death, German herself seems to have taken the news well. Olmstead explained, “It sucks, but it’s a job and a craft. This is what happens sometimes. You mourn it and move on.”
Charlie Barnett (Peter Mills)
NBC
As if those flashbacks to Leslie Shay’s death weren’t sad enough for the third season of “Chicago Fire,” that season also saw the exit of another long-running cast member. Charlie Barnett’s character Peter Mills left “Chicago Fire” in an episode titled, fittingly, “You Know Where To Find Me,” leaving firefighting behind to go work at his family’s restaurant on the East Coast. After all, Mills’s father had been a firefighter who was killed on the job, so it made sense that Mills himself would retire before meeting a similar fate.
Explaining things to TV Guide, executive producer Matt Olmstead said this one was purely a story-based decision. “It was solely based on bringing in new people for new stories. Otherwise it turns into a clown car,” he said. “We wanted to shake things up and bring in a new character and we started discussing the idea … and here we are.” Though the title of his last episode and the fact that he hadn’t died meant the door was still open for Barnett to someday return to “Chicago Fire,” he has not done so as of press time.
Dora Madison (Jessica ‘Chili’ Chilton)
NBC
Dora Madison played a paramedic named Jessica Chilton on “Chicago Fire,” and “Chili,” as she was affectionately known, was bumped up to a series regular for the show’s fourth season. However, mere episodes later, after spiraling and getting into some pretty self-destructive behavior, Chili was summarily fired from her job, and Madison left the show. While fans had been invested in her budding romance with Borrelli (Steven R. McQueen), suddenly Chili was no longer part of the Firehouse 51 family.
The Hollywood Reporter turned to showrunner Matt Olmstead to figure out what went on here. He explained that they wrote Chili out to let viewers know that not only was nobody safe, nobody was safe at any time. No longer were they only going to say goodbye to beloved characters in season finales, and exits could now happen at any time. “You can threaten people leaving and you can kind of rattle your saber here and there,” he said, “but unless you follow through on it, no one is going to believe you.” Olmstead made sure to add, “We liked the actress a lot, and she did a great job.”
Steven R. McQueen (Jimmy Borrelli)
NBC
“The Vampire Diaries” franchise finally bit the dust in 2022 with the cancellation of a spinoff called “Legacies.” Original “Vampire Diaries” star Steven R. McQueen, however, ducked out of the flagship supernatural romance back in 2015, save for a few appearances in 2017. In 2015, the same year he left “The Vampire Diaries,” McQueen — the grandson of the legendary actor of the same name — joined the cast of “Chicago Fire,” then in its fourth season.
Unfortunately, his handsome, headstrong character Jimmy Borrelli wasn’t long for the One Chicago world either. His older brother Danny (Andy Ahrens) died in the season 4 finale, and Jimmy took the news hard. His misbehavior continued into season 5, but then Jimmy himself experienced a tragic accident, losing his eye in a car bomb.
Executive producer Michael Brandt told TVLine that they wrote Jimmy out in part because his feud with Bode had reached a stalemate, and also in part because they wanted to acknowledge the true danger faced by firefighters. “We’ve wrestled with this over the last four years, in terms of threats and real dangers to people in the firehouse,” he said. “There are times when people get injured, or really bad things happen to them.”
Monica Raymund (Gabriela Dawson)
NBC
Monica Raymund was part of the original cast of “Chicago Fire,” and her paramedic character Gabby Dawson wound up becoming a major romantic interest for Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) after the tragic loss of his season 1 girlfriend Hallie. Dawson was a standout on her own, though, an incredibly-competent first responder who viewers loved watching as she helped patients with her trademark bravery.
Raymund chose to leave “Chicago Fire” after its sixth season, putting in just a few appearances on seasons 7 and 8 after Dawson moved to Puerto Rico. The actor spoke with The Chicago Tribune about her decision, explaining that it was simply time for her to explore other opportunities when her initial six-year contract expired. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword because on the one hand, it’s wonderful to be employed for that long and to have job security,” she said. “But sometimes you have to take a risk to diversify your opportunities.”
If you’re curious how Dawson’s storylines affected the show overall, you can check out our ranking of every season of “Chicago Fire,” worst to best.
Yuriy Sardarov (Brian ‘Otis’ Zvonecek)
NBC
Aside from Gabby Dawson’s move to Puerto Rico, Firehouse 51 made it through the rest of season 7 largely unscathed. In the season 8 premiere, however, the crew once again dealt with a devastating loss of one of their most beloved members. That episode saw the death of Yuriy Sardarov’s character Brian Zvoncek, better known as “Otis.” He was a reliable source of comic relief across his seven seasons on the show, which made Otis’s death hit all the harder, especially as far as his best bud Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) was concerned.
“We just said, ‘We gotta put some teeth back into the show, and we gotta show that the dangers are real,'” showrunner Derek Haas explained to TVLine. They’d left everyone in limbo with the frightening mattress factory fire that closed out Season 7, so they decided over the hiatus that Otis would be the next one to get the chop. Haas said he took it well. “I’ve never had a call as professional and as gracious,” he recalled. “He’s a writer himself, and he understands that you, as a writer, have to surprise the audience and give them something that they weren’t expecting.”
Annie Ilonzeh (Emily Foster)
NBC
Annie Ilonzeh joined the “Chicago Fire” cast in 2018, where she played Emily Foster, a new character added for season 7. Emily was a paramedic, and though she was brought in to fill the void left by Dawson’s departure, neither Ilonzeh nor her character let the pressure get to her. “In real life, you can never replace a person,” she told One Chicago Center. “It just doesn’t work like that. You honor the relationship, and hopefully you’re supportive of that person’s mourning or loss, and you can be there for them.”
Ultimately, Foster decided that she’d rather be a full-on surgeon than a paramedic, so Ilonzeh left the show after season 8 to go back to medical school. While she hasn’t spoken about the reasons that led to her departure, Ilonzeh later told Authority Magazine that her “Chicago Fire” training came in handy during a real-life emergency. After she witnessed an unhoused man get attacked and beaten by someone in Hollywood, Ilonzeh kept him stable and directed passersby to call 9-1-1. “I wasn’t afraid,” she said. “I was just focused on the human being in front of me who almost lost his life.”
Foster jumped from “Chicago Fire” to “S.W.A.T.,” the Shemar Moore-led CBS procedural that’s been canceled three times. Thankfully, she knows a thing or two about rolling with casting punches.
Adriyan Rae (Gianna Mackey)
NBC
When Adriyan Rae was announced as a new cast member on “Chicago Fire,” her character Gianna Mackey was supposed to be a series regular. Though Gianna immediately made an impact on Firehouse 51, falling into quite the steamy relationship with Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende), Rae ultimately only lasted nine episodes on the show. Creator Derek Haas told Entertainment Weekly that the departure was Rae’s decision, explaining, “Adriyan let us know she had some private reasons to leave ‘Chicago.’ To hear that as a showrunner, you absolutely respect what an actor needs. All I can say is we love her, and I know she’s going to be great on some other series.”
While Haas left the firehouse door open for Rae to return at some point in the future, she has not done so at press time. Instead, she led the cast of the romantic Netflix hit “Forever,” and she even made a mark on the “Atlanta” season 3 finale, which served up kinky chaos and baguette beatdowns.
Jesse Spencer (Matt Casey)
NBC
Jesse Spencer starred on “House M.D.,” one of the best medical shows of all time, before making the jump right into “Chicago Fire.” That meant that by the time the show’s tenth season rolled around, Spencer had been on television consistently for nearly two decades. When “Chicago Fire” hit its 200th episode, he decided it was time to leave series lead Matt Casey behind and start figuring out what was next. “This was a difficult decision because I have loved the show from the start, but there are other things that I would like to do in the future, and there’s some family that I need to take care of, and 18 years is a long time,” he told People at a press roundtable.
Fans were shocked when Casey moved to Portland to care for the children of his best friend, who’d died all the way back in the very first episode of “Chicago Fire.” After all, Casey and Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) had just finally cemented their relationship several episodes before, after years of teasing a will-they, won’t-they scenario … and now he was leaving.
Casey revisited Firehouse 51 a few times, and executive producer Derek Haas told People that they are always willing to write him back. “I never try to predict what’s going to happen production-wise,” he said, “but we’re in the camp of whenever Jesse wants to come do an episode with us, we will move mountains and earth to make that happen.”
Taylor Kinney (Kelly Severide)
NBC
Taylor Kinney’s character Kelly Severide had been one of the show’s main characters since the very beginning, but in season 11 — shortly after he finally married Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) in the season 10 finale — Severide went away. The character supposedly had decided to attend an arson-investigating training program, and that program required him to be gone throughout the rest of season 11.
Unlike many of the characters who were written off the show, Kinney had no intention of staying away forever. “A source close to the production confirmed to Deadline that Kinney is taking a leave of absence to deal with a personal matter,” the outlet reported in January 2023. He returned a year later, showing back up in Chicago halfway through season 12.
Aside from this as-yet-unexplained hiatus for personal reasons, Kinney seems to have no intention of leaving “Chicago Fire.” When the show celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2022, he told Us Weekly, “It’s never lost on me how special it is to be a part of something with the longevity this has.”
Alberto Rosende (Blake Gallo)
NBC
Before Alberto Rosende joined the cast of “Chicago Fire” as Blake Gallo, he was best-known for having starred on “Shadowhunters,” a critically-panned fantasy show that’s actually a lot of fun. Whereas Rosende played a vampire on that show, Gallo on “Chicago Fire” was all too human; he’d become a firefighter because he’d tragically lost his own family in a blaze as a kid. Eventually, Gallo got involved in as many romances and arguments as anyone else, becoming a prized member of the Firehouse 51 family. Rosende wound up sticking with the show for four full seasons, even longer than he’d been on “Shadowhunters.”
Deadline initially broke the news that Gallo would be leaving Chicago in the season 12 premiere, where the character found out about an extended family, which was all he’d ever wanted, and he moved away to be with them. After Deadline reported on his departure, Rosende shared his reasoning on his Instagram Story. “When I decided to end my time with ‘Chicago,’ it wasn’t easy,” he said. “The people I’ve met were truly special, the friendships I’ve made will last a lifetime, and the story I got to tell was one that made me proud.”
Kara Killmer (Sylvie Brett)
NBC
When Matt Casey moved to Portland, perhaps it was only a matter of time before Kara Killmer’s paramedic character Sylvie Brett would follow. After all, she and Casey had been circling one another for years, and they finally flipped from flirting to a full-on romance just before everything became long-distance. Killmer stuck around on the show until season 12, when the episode “Port in the Storm” finally delivered the “Brettsey” wedding fans had wanted for years. At that point, Killmer had been on the show for ten years, and she was ready to say goodbye.
Speaking with People, Killmer explained that her last days on set weren’t sad. Her last shooting day was the wedding reception, so she felt like it was one big party to say farewell to everyone she loved, including Brett. “We had been coming off of this long strike and coming back for six episodes, so I had a lot of time to process it, and I would say I spent more time savoring it than grieving,” she ruminated. “Ten years is a long time, and I just had the best time that I could possibly have.”
Eamonn Walker (Chief Boden)
NBC
In 2016, when the feud between Jimmy Borrelli (Steven R. McQueen) and Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) reached a boiling point, producer Michael Brandt told TVLine that there was no way Boden would’ve been the character to leave. “Eamonn [Walker] has been with us since Day 1,” Brandt said. “He was the first character we cast. He’s Papa Bear in Chicago.” Brandt explained that he himself and the other executive producers, including Dick Wolf, would leave long before Walker did. “He’s not going anywhere. He’s on the show as long as he wants to be. He’s too much of the rock,” he laughed.
Executive producer Matt Olmstead left the One Chicago franchise in 2017, and Derek Haas left the show in 2022; Brandt had been right that Walker would outlast them. In 2024, however, Walker finally made his exit, while Wolf and Brandt remain. After more than a decade as the Chief at Firehouse 51, Boden decided to run for Deputy Commissioner instead … and he won.
Walker returned for an episode in season 13, reprising his character in his new role. “The welcoming was so warm. I had missed them terribly and to find out that they had missed me as much was fantastic,” he told People. “One is always happy if one knows that one’s left one’s mark somewhere, and what I didn’t realize until I left was how much everybody had left their mark on me.”
Daniel Kyri (Darren Ritter)
Peter Gordon/NBC
Daniel Kyri joined the cast of “Chicago Fire” in 2018, introducing Firehouse 51 to a newcomer named Darren Ritter. Unlike many of the firefighters who the show had focused on until that point, Ritter was gay, so he got some excellent thematic material to work with. “It feels empowering. Bringing this character to life is an honor because when I was young, I didn’t even know someone like him was possible,” Kyri told Numéro Netherlands. “Possibility is such a powerful thing and now Darren Ritter’s existence, as this bad ass, gay ass hero, is tangible.”
Unfortunately, after season 13, NBC felt the storyline had run its course … or perhaps that some of the money had run out. Deadline reported that sources told them, “[His exit is] believed to be part of an effort to trim the budget of ‘Chicago Fire,’ which also faces negotiations with many of the series’ veteran cast members whose contracts are up.”
Ritter expressed his gratitude for the role in an August 2025 Instagram post, which revealed the character would get a proper goodbye in season 14. “I am so humbled & proud to have portrayed you,” he wrote. “I’m thrilled that my inner child would have looked at you each week in awe of everything you represent. You made history. Thank you so much, Darren Ritter. And goodbye.”
Jake Lockett (Sam Carver)
Peter Gordon/NBC
Jake Lockett joined the cast of “Chicago Fire” in 2022, bringing a new firefighter named Sam Carver to Firehouse 51 for season 11. Thanks to Carver’s anger issues, he was put on leave in the season 12 finale, but he returned for season 13. The actor told TVLine that his new arc involved his character getting even moodier, reflecting, “This season, he’s a little bit more in conflict not only personally, but like interpersonally with other people in the firehouse.”
Unfortunately, Lockett was a victim of the budget cuts that hit the show after season 13. When the news broke, he posted a video to Instagram showing a compilation of behind-the-scenes clips of himself goofing off with his co-stars. “While I don’t exactly know what the future looks like, I do know that it won’t be exactly what it was and I am going to miss the hell out of that. So much pride in this journey,” he wrote. “It’s been an honor bringing Sam to life and to every one of you, thank you for the love and support over the past three years.”
Michael Bradway (Jack Damon)
NBC
Michael Bradway began appearing on “Chicago Fire” in season 12, showing up for a few episodes here and there as Jack Damon, the troublesome half-brother of Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney). Unfortunately, even though it seemed like he could’ve grown into quite an entertaining recurring character, Bradway too was cut after season 13. He seemed to really love living in Chicago to shoot the show, sharing a photo on Instagram of himself surrounded by children while in firefighting gear. “Top 2 city… and it ain’t 2….” he captioned the snap.
Soaps.com, which broke the news of Bradway’s departure, spoke with sources who claimed he may return to “Chicago Fire” after all at some point in the future, if his schedule allows. In the meantime, though, that schedule seems pretty packed; he’s been cast in Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation of the hit romance novel “Every Summer After,” writing on Instagram, “Couldn’t be more excited to be your Charlie.”
