open/close all folders
Main Characters
Daniel Charles
Dr. Daniel Charles
Played By: Oliver Platt
Gaffney Chicago Medical Center's Chief of Psychiatry. He often finds himself in the ED helping patients deal with trauma while also seemingly spending just as much time helping his colleagues deal with their personal issues. He's an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Dr. Charles is friendly, but he's no pushover. For example, an influencer couple, who makes decisions based on their followers' votes, refuses treatment due to the results of a vote. So, he and Dr. Choi wheel the bedridden influencer to the top parking deck and have him ask his "fans" if they should jump off the ledge. The audience votes "yes" majority, but after looking down, the patient finally consents to treatment.
- Big Eater: He's frequently seen munching on one snack or another. Pork rinds seem to be a personal favorite of his.
- Broken Bird: Suffers from depression, has been shot on the job, remarried his first wife only for her to die of cancer shortly thereafter, inadvertently caused his resident (whom he had built a fatherly relationship with) to quit her job at the hospital, and, apart from Sharon, seems to have no real friendships and seems rather lonely.
- Da Chief: Chief of the hospital's psychiatry department.
- Disappeared Dad: To both his eldest daughter Robin and his youngest daughter Anna. After years he attempts to fix his relationship with Robin, which eventually sticks. However Anna is merely fifteen and in a rebellious stage, rendering Daniels's attempts to reconcile with her much harder.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Keeps a bottle of top shelf Balmoral scotch in his office. Not necessarily because he needs it himself, but it sometimes makes his private sessions with other staff run smoother if he has them under the cover of having a quick drink after hours.
- Comes into play in an episode where he consults with a Russian colleague, Misha, with a patient who had previously been psychiatrically committed in the Soviet Union who is traumatized at finding himself in another mental hospital. Misha reacts by fleeing the room, snagging Charles' entire bottle and collapsing before confiding in Charles that in the Soviet Union, psychology was often a cover for basically imprisoning suspected dissidents and that the patient saw him and thought that he was being locked away again, and that Misha had repressed trauma from his medical practice being abused in the past for political reasons.
- Parental Substitute: He becomes this for Reese, being encouraging and supportive of her.
- The Shrink: Of the awesome variety. He's frequently shown to be the only character throughout the Chicago-verse who can get closed-off characters to open up and confront their issues through a combination of compassion and mind games. In season 4, Otis from Fire ends up in the hospital and eventually opens up about a traumatic experience where a mother and child got in an elevator that eventually caught fire. Their bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted, since he serves as the primary shrink for this show and the Chicago-verse in general. He's also in therapy himselfnote and is prescribed medication to help him cope with the stresses of his job.
Maggie Lockwood
Nurse Maggie Lockwood
Played by: Marlyne Barrett
The ED's Charge Nurse, responsible for triaging patients as they come into the ED. Nothing happens in the ED without her knowledge or permission.
- Big Sister Mentor: She treats nearly everyone in the ED as if they were her younger siblings. Especially evident in how she takes Sarah under her wing and helps the younger woman overcome a lot of her confidence issues.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Natalie and April.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Sharon Goodwin.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In episode 14 of season 3, "Lock it Down", after a code pink puts the hospital in lockdown and short-staffed, Maggie treats a patient, criking her and she ends up saving her life. Though she is later suspended, the victim's family doesn't want to sue the hospital out of gratitude.
- Sergeant Rock: She serves as the bridge between the nurses and doctors and mentors the staff who are still in training, even the ones who technically outrank her.
- Signed Language: In the Season 4 premiere, it's stated she's certified in sign language.
- Teen Pregnancy: In Season 6 episode 8, Maggie reveals she gave birth to a baby girl at sixteen years old that was given up for adoption.
- Trickster Mentor: She gives Dr. Choi just enough rope to hang himself as a way of showing him that his grand plans for the ED won't work.
Sharon Goodwin
Sharon Goodwin
Played By: S. Epatha Merkerson
Chief of Services at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. A former nurse who made the switch to become an administrator.
- Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Not as frazzled as some examples but she has to walk a very fine line to make sure that patients receive the best care possible while also satisfying the hospital board and wealthy donors and also ensuring staff welfare.
- Beware the Nice Ones: As protective as she is of the hospital's staff, she angrily tells Dr. Halstead, after he goes against a patient's wishes, that she will fire him the moment she thinks that keeping him on will be to the hospital's detriment.
- Black Boss Lady: She's the chief of services at the hospital, runs the hospital with fairness and is a person of color.
- Good Is Not Soft: She is a kind and loving person, but she will do what is needed to save lives. When the hospital is in locked down because of a young man holding the emergency room hostage to escape with his girlfriend and their newborn child, she tries to talk the young man down and empathize with him. Once the child is born Sharon will not let him hold the baby. Knowing how desperate he is for the baby, she leads the man into a kill zone so the police can kill him. All of this to protect the patients and staff in her hospital.
- Happily Married: To Bert in Season 1. Subverted after the finale after he divorces her after she has no intentions of retiring from her job.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Maggie.
Crockett Marcel
Crockett Marcel
Played By: Dominic Rains
Chicago Med's new ED trauma surgeon. Raised in New Orleans, Crockett is a hard-partying doctor from Louisiana who's great at performing surgeries but isn't always one to follow the hospital's rules.
- The Casanova: Flirts with April Sexton, eventually ship-teased with Natalie Manning.
- Chick Magnet: Virtually all the female nurses gossip about him, including April. Natalie also begins falling for him in the second half of Season 5.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Lost his daughter to leukemia when she was only a year old.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the season 5 premiere, as soon as Natalie is brought into the hospital following her head injury, Marcel rushes in and forcefully pushes Will out of the trauma room and makes him seek medical treatment.
- He is later seen when Noah opens a treatment room and finds Marcel on the patient bed, having hooked himself up to IV fluids and reading a magazine after a long overnight shift. This immediately shows him as a hard worker who nonetheless has very little regard for regular rules or propriety.
- Remember the New Guy?: Said to have worked at Gaffney for a period of time, yet never seen until the premiere of season 5.
- The Rival: With Dr Choi, over spoiler: April's love. After finding out Crockett kissed April, he violently confronts him, even throwing a punch at him.
- Ship Tease: Initially with April Sexton, eventually with Natalie Manning in the latter half of Season 5. Breaks up with her off-screen following her departure in Season 7.
- Southern-Fried Genius: A Zoroastrian immigrant from Iran, raised in Louisiana in the deep-south, also a trauma doctor working in Gaffney Medical Center in Chicago.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Just as Gaffney loses tall, dark-haired, handsome brilliant surgeon Dr. Connor Rhodes, it gains tall, dark-haired, handsome brilliant surgeon Dr. Crockett Marcel. Notably, both were featured in the season five debut but had no scenes together, as a number of scenes featuring Rhodes were filmed as part of the season four finale and were added to the next season's first episode.
- Therapy Is for the Weak: Dr. Charles attempts to coax him into getting evaluated, but he refuses until Dr. Charles makes it mandatory. And even then he only does it in the form of getting lunch together. It turns out later on this is because his one year older daughter died of cancer and he doesn't want people at work to know.
Dean Archer
Dr. Dean Archer
Played By: Steven Weber
An experienced emergency physician and Choi's former Navy mentor, Dr. Archer is dealing with demons of his past and has trouble accepting the fact that Dr. Choi is now in charge of him, instead of the other way around.
- Da Chief: Of the ED, after Dr. Choi is shot and he takes the position from him while he recovers.
- Jerkass: Noted for being particularly harsh, owing to his by-the-book attitude. However, he seems to direct most of his jerk-ass nature to Will.
- Reinforced in the premiere episode of Season 7, as he tries to blame Dr. Charles for the hospitalization of a patient, only to be reminded that he was the one who refused to allow for initial treatment for said patient.
- Therapy Is for the Weak: Dean vehemently avoids being evaluated by Dr. Charles, to the point where he actively skips out on a mandatory therapy session.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After being promoted to chief of the ED, he falls back into his habits of taking charge and making decisions on patient care while disregarding advise and input from other faculty. It owes to his military background as a Navy doctor, where he's used to a much more regimented and formalized chain of command and doesn't cope with being outside it nearly as well as Dr. Choi.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Dr. Archer gradually starts to loosen up on his rigidity, particularly after going through eye-opening events like going through a POV simulation of someone with schizophrenia and after taking on a sort of mentor role for Dr. Asher.
Former Main Characters
Will Halstead
Dr. Will Halstead
Played By: Nick Gehlfuss
An attending physician at Chicago Med's ED, where he was previously the senior resident. Formerly a plastic surgeon, Will is a reliable guy to have both in and outside the ER but has a tendency to go overboard when looking out for the welfare of his patients and being impulsive in regards to his relationships with his colleagues. Will is the older brother of Detective Jay Halstead of the CPD.
- Amicable Exes: Zigzagged with Natalie in season 5. Following her car accident and subsequently loss of memory, Will repeatedly tries to convince her that Phillip is manipulating her, however, she refuses to believe him, thinking that he is jealous of their relationship. Subsequently in the mid-season finale, she regains her memory and goes to tell Will that she loves him, however, he rejects her admission, instead finally admitting that they were never right for each other in the first place.
- Betty and Veronica:
- Betty: Zoe Roth, a pharmaceutical rep who's done everything short of throwing herself on Halstead to show she's attracted to him, even calling in huge professional favors to help him. His interactions with her don't go beyond friendly flirting.
- Veronica: Natalie Manning, his colleague. He's thrown himself at her to show her he cares but she's still mourning the recent death of her husband and coming to grips with being a single mother.
- The Casanova: Halstead is first introduced having had a habit of picking up women, even married women.
- Character Development: Introduced on Chicago P.D. as Jay Halstead's carefree, reckless brother who spends his nights partying, picking up women, getting into trouble, and moving from one job opportunity to another to Jay's chagrin. After a bomb incident at Gaffney's Medical Center during the back-door pilot on Chicago Fire, he goes out of his way to step up and goes up and over for all injured, and at the end of the day, decides to stay in Chicago eventually becoming a more responsible and stable doctor, dropping his womanizing ways and becoming the senior resident by the series' pilot.
- Chick Magnet: He's had the attention of Natalie - the primary object of his affections - Zoe and Nina. This was before his womanizing ways before the start of the series.
- Fiery Redhead: He has fairly bright red hair and the passionate personality to match.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Briefly towards new med student resident Jeff Clarke when he clearly sees sparks between him and Natalie.
- Hot-Blooded: Rather stubborn and has a tendency to make impulsive decisions regarding his patients' welfare that he risks being fired and losing his license.
- Missing Mom: His and Jay's mother died from cancer.
- Nice Guy: Despite his flaws - being overly eager, stubborn, and sometimes impulsive - he's an all-around reliable guy to have as a friend.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In Season 1 "Choices", he discovers a potential trial treatment for a terminal cancer patient and pressures her husband into rescinding her Do Not Resuscitate order so that she may participate in the treatment trials. When she flat lines he doesn't wait for the husband's answer, seeing him agonising over the question as all the answer he needs, and resuscitates her. Although he's successful, he's then hit with a massive lawsuit, Sharon Goodwin threatens to fire him, and the patient is given a placebo rather than the actual drug before passing away. Subverted in the end though, when the husband tearfully thanks Halstead nonetheless for giving his family a little more time to spend with their wife and mother, and drops the lawsuit after she passes away.
- Red Oni: Passionate, outspoken, and overly eager, he's this to Dr. Connor Rhodes' Blue Oni.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: During his time on the show, Will often disregards proper protocols to save patients' lives. In season one, he resuscitates a cancer patient with a DNR order which lands him in some seriously hot water with the medical board. Early on into season one he resuscitates a heart attack patient who had been down for twenty minutes - the patient ended up living, but with serious deficits.
- In season five, Will starts working at an illegal safe injection site after losing one of his patients, whom he had previously prescribed the drugs that ended up getting her addicted.
- Ship Tease: With Natalie, Zoe, and Nina! The main object of his affections, though, is Natalie, and while she hasn't outward rejected him, she's hesitant to pursue a new relationship.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In Season 2, in the wake of the lawsuit filed against him, he finds that he has to pay drastically increased malpractice insurance premiums.
- Take a Third Option: In regards to his personal life. He decides not to pursue either of the women in his orbit in Season 1 (see Betty and Veronica above) and begins dating Dr. Nina Shore, the hospital's pathologist, in Season 2.
- Taking the Heat: Takes the blame for Manning stealing trial drugs to help her mother's heart condition, resulting in Goodwin canning him. Whether he'll be reinstated following Manning admitting her transgression to Goodwin remains to be seen.
- Transplant: First appears as recurring on Chicago P.D. season 2 as Detective Jay Halstead's brother.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Will aspires for his father Pat Halstead's approval with whom he has a strained relationship. His father derided him for going to college and med school instead of going to work immediately.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Will's tendency to make overboard decisions both in his profession and his personal life has lead to a number of people (Natalie, Maggie, Sharon, Connor) calling him out on his actions.
April Sexton
Nurse April Sexton
Played By: Yaya DaCosta
A nurse in the ED, recently returned from a round-the-world trip to find herself. Her brother is an intern at Chicago Med. She's also old friends with Kelly Severide of the Chicago Fire Department, her family had taken him in after his parent's marriage fell apart.
- Amicable Exes: Averted with Dr. Choi, largely as a result of her kissing Dr. Marcel. However, she still retains feelings for him and is guilty about her involvement with him. Played straight in season 8 premiere, where she pays her respects to the late Mr. Choi. Finally comes full circle, where they marry in the season 8 fall finale.
- Big Sister Instinct: Towards her younger brother Noah, who's always a source of frustration and worry for her and tries to keep him in line.
- Break the Cutie: The miscarriage she suffers from her tuberculosis exposure results in her becoming more withdrawn and aloof to her colleagues. Fortunately, things get better.
- The Bus Came Back: After leaving at the end of season 6, she appears in the season 8 premiere.
- Chekhov's Gun: Between her introduction in Chicago Fire and Chicago Med's debut, she's said to have gone on a backpacking trip to "find herself". As it turns out, she contracted tuberculosis while overseas and the diagnosis and treatment of the disease come to the forefront in Season 2.
- Crossover Ship: With a cling with Kelly Severide.
- Dude Magnet: She's had the attention of her old friend Kelly Severide, Tate Jenkins a football player, and now Dr. Choi.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Kind, diligent, hardworking, and protective, she's the responsible older sister to her brother Noah.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Maggie and Natalie.
- Hospital Hottie
- Nerves of Steel: Being a natural Nice Girl and all, April proves she's invaluable in a crisis, in particular when she cheers up a terrified little girl with a cute story of her mother making treats and drugging an aggressive, intransigent patient with a sedative when he gets violent - all in one episode.
- Nice Girl
- Outliving One's Offspring: She suffers a miscarriage losing her unborn baby.
- Put on a Bus: In season six she was accepted into the Nurse Practitioner program.
- Relationship Upgrade: With Ethan at the end of Season 2.
- Transplant: Similar to Dr. Halstead, April was introduced in Chicago Fire Season 3 as an old high school friend of Kelly Severide.
- The Unfavorite: In her household, she is hinted to be this as her parents expected Noah, "the golden boy" to go to medical school.
Natalie Manning
Dr. Natalie Manning
Played By: Torrey DeVitto
A pediatrician doing a fellowship in emergency medicine. She is a native of Seattle, WA, and a widowed mother coping with the loss of her husband Jeff, who was killed in action.
- Actor-Shared Background: She plays the violin.
- Aesop Amnesia: The amount of time she makes mistakes she should learn from galores. Still, she goes on with her poor decision making until her departure from the show without ever proving of having learnt something from her life at Chicago.
- Amicable Exes: With Jeff Clark after they break up mid-season 2.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Natalie is a good supportive friend to have, but that's not to mean she'll just let others steamroll over her and won't call them out when she disagrees with them or piss her off. Just ask Will or Jeff.
- Brainy Brunette: Has brown hair and like most of the main cast she's a doctor.
- Broken Bird: She's still grieving the loss of her husband over most of season 1.
- Easy Amnesia: Invoked to an extent during the first half of season 5, largely as a result of her car accident, and forgets her relationship with Will, and her supposed "engagement" with Phillip. However, she recovers it by the mid-season finale of season 5.
- Friend to All Children: She's a pediatrician specialist, good with kids of all ages and on top of that she's a mom.
- Irony: As mentioned above, she hates it when people think she needs protection. Too bad it's only thanks to Plot Armor that she hasn't ended up with her her medical licence revoked, or worse, ended up in jail. A person like Natalie, so incapable of working as a doctor AND separating her personal issues from her work, and who is also so prone at believing to the wrong people, would need a lot of protection in real life. And worse, after a Heel Realization in which she seems to have understood that she went too far, she is ready to start all over again and, the next time she shows off her poor decision making, she proves to not having learned anything, from her past experience.
- Karma Houdini: Invoked repeatedly throughout the series, Natalie conducts all sorts of treatments and abuses loopholes in an effort to get her patients treated, often despite opposition from the patient's family members.
- Zigzagged during a particular case when her patient's parents do not believe in Western medicine attempt to leave the hospital with their son, Natalie resorts to drastic measures in an effort to help her patient. While she is detained by authorities, she is merely given a slap on the wrist for her actions, much to the frustration of her superiors.
- Despite admitting to stealing trial drugs to treat her ailing mother, Natalie receives virtually no punishment for her actions, instead merely leaving Chicago entirely to relocate to Seattle with her mother, with Will Halstead instead suffering from the fallout of her actions.
- Nice Girl: She's friendly, kind, and helpful to everyone around, friends, colleagues, or patients.
- Put on a Bus: Steals trial drugs for her mother in season six. When Will is fired for taking the hit, after the truth comes out, Natalie can't accept this and reveals the truth to Sharon. Eventually departs Chicago for Seattle to take care of her recovering mother.
- Screaming Birth: She has a rather dramatic delivery while giving birth to her son Owen.
- Ship Tease: With Will over the first two seasons. During Season 1, Will makes his feelings for her known, but she's still grieving her late husband, so she gently dissuades his advances, though they become closer towards the end of Season 2, until in Season 3 they finally become a couple. By Season 4, they had plans to get married, until Will is forced into protective custody and their relationship begins to deteriorate. With Crockett Marcel during the latter half of Season 5. Breaks up with him off-screen shortly after her departure back to Seattle to take care of her recovering mother.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Her husband Jeff was killed in action prior to the birth of their child.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: A gender-flipped example, Natalie herself invokes this trope in Season 2 "Generation Gap" noting that her long hours at the hospital leave little time for her son.
Ava Bekker
Dr. Ava Bekker
Played By: Norma Kuhling
A cardiothoracic surgeon from South Africa who instantly becomes a competitive thorn in Dr. Rhodes' side.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Ava lets Connor know in passing she "likes dangerous men."
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has this in spades with Dr. Rhodes.
- Brutal Honesty
- Character Death (See Driven to Suicide)
- Driven to Suicide: When Dr. Latham mentions that the insulin that overdosed Dr. Rhodes' father can be traced to who had access to it, she later uses a scalpel to slash her own throat. The last thing she says to Connor is that he really is an ungrateful prick, further implying her guilt. Despite their attempts to save her, she dies on the operating table.
- Everyone Has Standards: Angered at Connor's accusations that she slept with his dad, despite her very obvious disgust at the notion. However, owing to her manipulative nature, it is unknown who was telling the truth.
- Frenemy
- Hospital Hottie
- Jerkass: Very blunt, and has a rather underrated bedside manner.
- Jerkass Has a Point
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She seems cold-hearted, but Ava usually does seem to care about her patients' well-being.
- Manipulative Bitch: Heavily implied during Season 4 after her break-up with Dr. Rhodes.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: She was never what you would call totally sane to begin with, but Season 4 has Ava going completely off the deep end in her increasingly psychotic desire for Connor's affection, culminating in her murdering his father and then eventually killing herself in the Season 5 premiere once Connor figures everything out and her crimes can be traced back to her.
- No Social Skills: She is never seen interacting much with the other characters during her appearances, largely only socializing with Dr. Latham, Dr. Rhodes, and the surgery staff.
- Number Two: Bekker joins Connor's role as a cardiothoracic surgery fellow working under Dr. Latham.
- Pet the Dog
- The Rival: Was considered to be one of Dr. Latham's top choices for a fellowship. Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Bekker come to blows with each other over the way they operate, and how they treat their staff.
- Worthy Opponent: She and Dr. Rhodes constantly compete over cases and clash over each other's different surgical judgments. Now and then they display a reluctant appreciation for each others' decisions, constantly switching between hot and cool.
- Yandere: After her breakup with Dr. Rhodes, she is implied to be behind incidents that land Connor in trouble only to have her fix them. Then it's implied she had intentionally overdosed Dr. Rhodes' father with insulin resulting in his death, trying to win Connor back. When he rejects her, she calls him an ungrateful prick and tells him to rot in Hell, further implying she was indeed behind it all.
Connor Rhodes
Dr. Connor Rhodes
Played By: Colin Donnell
A surgeon who originally joined Chicago Med for a trauma fellowship before transferring to a cardiothoracic fellowship. He's the scion of one of Chicago's most prominent families, although he'd prefer to keep that fact a secret. Over the course of the first season, it's revealed that he was really hired to be the hand-picked successor of Dr. David Downey, a world-renowned transplant surgeon.
- Aloof Older Brother: To his sister Claire. Though he attempts to distance himself from his family because of his emotionally abusive father and his embarrassment over his family's status, he still cares for her.
- Blue Oni: To Halstead's Red Oni.
- Broken Ace: A gifted trauma and cardiothoracic surgeon but has trouble relating others early on and admits as much to fellow trauma surgeon Zanetti in season 1 "Malignant":Rhodes: "I have a father ... who you've met ... who's made it his life's mission to undermine me. And maybe that's made me a little sensitive at times."
Zanetti: "You have trust issues."
Rhodes: "You could put it that way." - Chick Magnet
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: When Dr. Latham tells Connor that he has Asperger's, Connor realizes just how momentous it is for Latham to have simply told him that and begins helping his new mentor better understand human interaction and smooths things over when Latham's behavior upsets others.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His mom committed suicide when he was ten, purportedly because of depression but an interaction between Connor and his dad implies he blames him for her death.
- Confides in Maggie that after he graduated high school, he bought drugs with a friend of his from an undercover cop and they were both arrested, but Connor's dad pulled strings and got Connor off while his pal was left to take the fall and committed suicide before Connor could make amends to which he still feels guilty.
- Defector from Decadence: He comes from an extremely wealthy upper-class family but chose to become a doctor because he wanted to do something meaningful with his life rather than join the family business to run high-end department stores.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the series' opening scene, seen on a passenger train, listening to music. Then the train suffers an accident. He immediately leaps into action, ignoring his own injury, inspecting everyone else's physical condition, and when he helps a patient to the hospital he persistently applies CPR even while standing on the gurney and then sets to work at the hospital he just happened to be hired at.
- Expansion Pack Past: In the first episode alone, the audience learns that he grew up in a wealthy neighborhood, went to medical school in Mexico, and practiced medicine in Saudi Arabia.
- Love Makes You Stupid: In the season 2 finale, after Dr. Charles has Robyn forcibly admitted, Connor, ignoring the fact he's not a psychiatrist, hires lawyers to revoke the order to take Robyn out of the hospital and take care of her himself. Right afterward, Robyn has a psychotic meltdown that Connor is unable to help with after she locks herself on a balcony, she's brought back in on a stretcher, and Charles rightfully pins her meltdown on him.
- Manly Tears: After his mentor and father figure, Dr. Downey passes away.
- Omniglot: Fluent in Spanish as he attended medical school at UAG in Mexico
. - Parental Issues: His mother committed suicide, and it's clear he holds his father accountable so much that he doesn't talk to him at all.
- Put on a Bus: The Season 5 premiere has him deciding to leave Chicago Med for good after finding out that Ava murdered his father and he fails to keep her from dying after she slits her own throat, intending to go somewhere far away where nobody will know him and just be seen as another regular doctor.
- The Stoic: Generally very calm, collected, and serious.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Though he doesn't get along with Will, they work well together and respect each other's medical opinions (while not necessarily appreciating them). Connor later stops Will from going near the latter's DNR patient after he's been ordered not to and thereby losing his medical license, saying that he considers Will a good doctor and the world needs good doctors.
- What the Hell, Hero?
Sarah Reese
Dr. Sarah Reese
Played By: Rachel Di Pillo
A recently graduated medical student. She spent the first season wanting nothing more than to settle into a quiet career as a pathologist, but finds herself reconsidering her career path after completing her rotation in emergency medicine. Unable to change her selected specialty, she spends the time skip between Season 1 and 2 working as a barista near the hospital before Dr. Charles offers her a residency in psychiatry.
- Boy Meets Girl: Her relationship with Joey, a lab tech at Chicago Med, begins with the two of them arguing about coffee etiquette on the hospital terrace and develops into a low-key relationship that gets occasionally touched upon and later ends fairly quietly.
- Break the Cutie: In Season 2, she tries her hardest to help a broken, vulnerable sex trafficking victim Danny escape his vicious situation. His captors only catch up to him and he turns up dead. Later along the way she must declare three patients dead in one night, that she accepts a psychotherapy course from Dr. Charles.
- Broken Ace
- Broken Pedestal
- Disappeared Dad: Her dad disappeared from her life before she was born, however, he returns in Season 3 after suffering from heart failure. Eventually, though, she discovers that he is a psychopath who had murdered several of his students.
- The Intern: Becomes this to Dr. Charles, offering her a residency in psychiatry. However, his actions towards his father results in her departure from the hospital and a strained relationship between the former mentor and mentee.
- Mommy Issues: Has a strained relationship with her mother.
- New Meat: As a young student doctor, she's absolutely overwhelmed by what goes on in the ED and has such severe confidence issues that she'll shrink back rather than step up in an emergency (her primary issue being finding veins with hypodermic needles). Maggie eventually takes Sarah under her wing and helps her gain a lot more confidence in the latter half of the first season.
- Non-Idle Rich: Her mother is wealthy enough to send checks with many zeroes as an "apology" for not coming to dinner. She prefers supporting herself and not depending on family money, even working as a barista to make ends meet.
- The Paranoiac: She's becomes ridden with anxiety after Dr. Charles gets shot by a former patient and paranoid over potential threats patients pose their doctors especially after she's conned by a sociopathic pickpocket, her tires are slashed and Noah is assaulted by a grieving brother. She finally cracks when she buys pepper spray and to her horror sprays a patient, resulting in her being suspended.
- Parental Issues: Her mom is distant and aloof to her and her father is a psychopathic murderer who has killed several of his students.
- Put on a Bus: leaves to continue her residency in Texas after it is revealed to everyone that her father is a serial killer.
- Quirky Curls: Her hair is usually rather unkempt and frizzy. The effect is doubled if she wears it in a top-knot.
- Ship Tease: With Noah Sexton. Starting in the season two finale and throughout season three, these two clearly have chemistry. Though it never leads anywhere. After Sarah leaves, Noah says to Dr. Charles that he "really liked her".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: She tries to change her chosen specialty after receiving an offer to train to be a pathologist. Because this is a breach of contract, she ends up losing her place at Chicago Med and is working as a barista until Dr. Charles offers to personally train her to become a psychiatrist.
- What the Hell, Hero?: As a sign that she's becoming more confident as a doctor and willing to fight for her patients, she goes on a furious rant against Dr. Charles for going behind her back and reversing her orders, justifiably saying that he ended up destroying her doctor-patient relationship with Robyn because he acted in haste.
- What Were You Thinking?: In Season 3's "Down by Law", a patient named Ben has checked himself into the psychiatric ward due to having repetitive homicidal thoughts towards his pregnant wife. So her bright idea to help him is via exposure therapy; by locking herself in a room with him and giving him a knife. While Ben ultimately doesn't harm her or himself, she gets reamed out by Dr. Charles for defying his orders and recklessly putting herself and Ben in danger, calling what she did "unbelievably stupid".
Dylan Scott
Dr. Dylan Scott
Played By: Guy Lockard
A former Chicago police officer who switched careers to medicine.
- Friend to All Children: Specializes in pediatric emergency medicine. Symbolized by his having bright neon banding and plastic toy attachments on his stethoscope to help make him look safer and friendlier to children.
Stevie Hammer
Dr. Stevie Hammer
Played By: Kristen Hager
A new attending physician.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her mother is an addict living on the streets, and she regularly checks up on her after her shift.
Ethan Choi
Dr. Ethan Choi
Played By: Brian Tee
Chicago Med ED's Chief Resident, completing his training as an emergency physician. He also has a background in infectious diseases.
- Aloof Older Brother: Has an adopted sister, Emily, who he hasn't had contact with for years because she makes bad decisions, hangs with the wrong crowd, he tried to help her out many times until he realized he couldn't let himself get involved with her drama anymore.
- Amicable Exes: Averted with April Sexton, where following the revelation of her kiss with Dr. Marcel, he gives her the cold shoulder and forces her to move out. Played straight when she returns in the season 8 premiere, as she went to the cemetery to pay respects to his late father. Finally comes full circle, where they fully reconcile and marry in the season 8 fall finale.
- Black-and-White Morality: He seems to act according to the assumption that legal and right must always be considered the same thing. This means that, in front of controversial situations, quite often his opinion puts him at odds with others, who see him as unnecessarily strict. While usually, by following his code, things get well, there is more than one case in which the final outcome is not seen by others as the better one. Anyway, there are also occasions in which he's able to accept how acting exactly according to law may not be the best decision.
- When an amputee soldier, with a highly advanced prosthesis replacing her forearm, comes under Ethan's and April's care because the prosthesis got infected and she hoped that, being her technically AWOL, by coming to a civilian hospital they could have treated her and then she could have come back to base without further consequences, Ethan decides to alert her army doctor anyway, saying that he needs further information about this new technology to be able to treat her, and does this against the woman's wishes and April's advice on handling the situation privately. Then is not the army doctor to arrive at Chicago Med, but the MP, that does nothing to help to treat the soldier so the hospital's staff has to quickly treat her by itself. When the woman is treated but taken away by MP while she's still sedated from the surgery, Ethan claims that he and April did their job, but the latter points out that what he did was ignoring a patient's wishes and turning her to people who proved to be more interested in retrieving the prosthesis than saving her life. Now the soldier's career is probably ruined and she will face severe punishment. He may have done the right thing according to law, but it was clear from the beginning that acting like this would not have helped the patient.
- Birds of a Feather: With med student Jeff Clarke both of them having a military background, and are commonly seen working together. He also has this with Detective Halstead and CPD tech analyst "Mouse" both former Army rangers when they have drinks at Molly's together in Chicago PD episode "Forty Caliber Bread Crumb".
- Character Development: An illegal immigrant comes to the hospital to hide from her husband overseas. Old Ethan would have reported her to the authorities. After recovering from getting shot, he decided not to report.
- Combat Medic: Prior to the series' time. He's a US Navy reservist who's been deployed to Afghanistan and recently completed a stint as a flight surgeon aboard the USS Carl Vinson.
- Da Chief: Of the ED, after Dr. Lanik steps down.
- Fuzz Therapy: He adopts a parrot because he needs some sort of constant companionship to help treat his PTSD.
- Heroic BSoD: He's revealed to be suffering from a prolonged one, stemming from when a an Afghani woman brought her dead child to him in the hope that he could provide treatment. Dr. Charles eventually starts to help him confront his issues.
- Hidden Depths: It's revealed in Season 2 he volunteers at the Chicago Zoo after adopting his parrot, and when a resident panda comes down with a heart defect, he pushed for the panda to be treated at the hospital.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He begins his first day as Chief Resident filled with big ideas on how to improve the ED. Everything fails spectacularly before the day is over and, chastised, he goes back to the tried-and-true system that had been in place before.
- Mr. Fanservice: Now and then, including a few ShirtlessScenes.
- Perpetual Frowner: Rarely, if not never, smiles most of the time, given his generally stoic demeanor and dealing with his PTSD. Not so much anymore going into Seasons 2 and 3, especially after he starts going out with April.
- Put on a Bus: He and April marry and start a mobile clinic.
- Relationship Upgrade: With April at the end of Season 2. Another one at the season 8 fall finale, where they marry.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. He goes into treatment with Dr. Charles to deal with his PTSD. By Season 2, he cheerfully extolls the virtues of therapy.
Recurring Characters
Gaffney Chicago Medical Center Staff
Samuel Abrams
Dr. Samuel "Sam" Abrams
Played By: Brennan Brown
An attending neurosurgeon who is known for his blunt and pessimistic behavior.
- Brutal Honesty:
- He does not sugarcoat diagnoses' and will call out co-workers for downright illegal behavior when treating patients.
- When Dr. Charles brings him an anxiety patient in need of an operation to remove a brain tumor while awake, he flat out states that it'll be almost impossible with the chance that the patient will lose control and fidget under the knife. When the patient freaks out at what's involved, Abrams shoves his chart at Charles and walks away. When Charles catches up with him, he says that if the patient isn't 100% on board, he isn't gonna do it and he's not taking one second of his time to try and twist his arm when the result could kill him.
- When Choi brings to him a patient who has a rare neurological illness that several doctors at other practices missed, the patient's wife asks how they could have missed this. Sam bluntly states, "Incompetence." Choi looks at him with a look of "Really?" Sam's response is a look of, "It's true."
- Dr. Jerk: His entire personality, frequently condescends the younger generation for their lack of work ethic, and unwillingness to work longer hours.
- Expy: Arrogant, asocial, snarky Dr. Jerk who really IS as talented and as big a genius as he believes? Yep, he's Gaffney's Dr. House.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- In Season 2 "Prisoner's Dilemma" he comes to see Natalie about a coma patient whose care facility failed to keep her safe alreadynote as he wonders what else they missed. He helps Natalie realize the woman is now in a nocturnal circadian rhythm and isn't actually in a coma. She is just paralyzed and there is a chance for some recovery.
- When he comes in to do surgery on a young man with autism who is a speed skater in the Special Olympics, he tells the patient's father to tell Sam when the patient is competing as Sam would like to come and cheer him on.
- May–December Romance: Him and his wife, who is at least a decade or so younger than him. However, this differs from most on-screen portrayals of the trope, in that Abrams' wife is not with him for his money. She is independently wealthy, and their marriage is a genuine love match.Abrams: "I'm the eye-candy in this relationship."
- Only Sane Man: Bluntly calls out the main ER doctors for their often unethical and rash decisions, saying he should report them.
Isidore Latham
Played By: Ato Essandoh
Dr. Isidore Latham
A cardiothoracic surgeon who takes over Connor Rhodes' training in Season 2. He is a brilliant surgeon but has difficulty interacting with others.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He admits to having difficulty interacting with others but his skills as a surgeon are second to none and his hearing is so refined that he can diagnose a faulty heart valve just by listening through his stethoscope whereas other doctors would need more high-tech diagnostic equipment.
- Commuting on a Bus: Has spent nearly entire seasons without being in an episode. His presence is felt often, typically when a nurse or other doctor passes along orders or recommendations to Drs. Rhodes or Bekker from offscreen, to the point where when he shows up on camera it is a genuine surprise to see him.
- Cunning Linguist: States at one point that he tries to learn a new language every year. On screen, he's shown communicating in Spanish, Hindi, and ASL.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He's shown a tendency to loudly snap at people if they don't immediately do as he says when in the OR. This is eventually revealed to be a sign that he has Asperger's Syndrome that had heretofore been undiagnosed.
- Hidden Depths: To Connor's surprise, Dr. Latham is a gifted piano player who plays in a quartet with other Chicago Med staff. And despite seeming to be very by-the-book, Latham is, according to Natalie Manning, a skilled improviser with an ability to take what he plays into entirely unexpected directions.
- Hollywood Autism: Dr. Isidore Latham finds human interaction difficult and will throw tantrums if his routine is disrupted too much. He eventually begins speaking with Dr. Charles and is formally diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and undergoes a series of electro-stimulation therapies to his brain in an attempt to better perceive human interaction.
- Serious Business: He is a highly devout Orthodox Jew who wears tzitzit and a kippah at all times. He will come into the office on the Sabbath if it's his turn on the rotation, but he will sit in his office and refrain from doing any of the prohibited activities except getting up to operate if a patient's life is at risk.
James Lanik
Dr. James Lanik
Played By: Nate Santana
Chief of Trauma Surgery, formerly the interim head of the Emergency Department.
- Da Chief: Of the ED. Resigns as chief in season six.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may be an ass, but he does clearly have a conscience. See My God, What Have I Done? below.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In episode three of season four, a sick boy is brought into the hospital by his father. It turns out the father had taken the son away from his ex-wife and was to be arrested. However, his son needed a liver and the father would have been a perfect match. Lanik (clearly doing Gwen Garrett's bidding) forbids this and as the father is about to be taken into custody, he reaches for an officer's gun and shoots himself in the head so that his son could get the liver. As he is wheeled off to surgery, Lanik turns to Gwen asking "What did we do?". She promptly shuts him down, saying the decision wasn't wrong.
Family and Friends
Emily Choi
Emily Choi
Played By: Arden Cho
Dr. Ethan Choi's irresponsible younger sister.
- Adoption Angst: It becomes clear soon after Emily is introduced that she and Ethan don't get along because he can't understand what it feels like to be adopted, and that she often felt like an outsider in her own family in her youth.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Her fiancé Bernie is at least in his fifties, while Emily is maybe in her late twenties or early thirties. Not helped by the fact that Bernie is already married with a teenaged daughter.
- Surprise Pregnancy: In season four it is revealed that not only is she pregnant, but the father is also a member of her AA group.
- The Atoner: Subverted several times. Moves in with Ethan only to have unwelcomed guests over and gets April to lie about it. Then starts volunteering at Med only to steal drugs during an emergency situation and sell them, nearly resulting in someone's death. Then goes to AA meetings to get her life on track only to start dating another(way older) member and get pregnant. By the end of season four, however, she seems to have found a steady rhythm with her baby, Bernie, and his family.
- What Does She See in Him?: Emily is a gorgeous young woman, in the prime of her life, meanwhile her fiancé and the father of her child Bernie is not only a man in his late fifties but also, as she finds out, married with an already teenaged daughter. Despite all of these factors, Emily not only reconciles with him but even moves into his house and lives in a patchwork family with his wife and daughter. Talk about odd.
Anna Charles
Anna Charles
Played By: Hannah Alligood
Daniel Charles's youngest daughter.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Is suspended from school for vaping and generally treats her dad with annoyance. Somewhat justified as she is merely trying to make her dad be around more.
- Disappeared Dad: Daniel doesn't seem to be around much in Anna's life.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Her pregnancy ends up being a chemical one, causing her to lose her baby.
- Put on a Bus: We meet Anna once in the season two premiere, only to not see her again until The Bus Came Back in season five. In-universe Anna had simply moved to another state when her mother was promoted.
- Teen Pregnancy: Comes in to get the pill from Natalie, only to find out that she is already pregnant.
- Tears of Fear: Watches as a child is forcefully separated from his mother due to suspected medical abuse and tearfully asks her father if this will happen to her too, considering he has been an absentee dad.
Former Recurring Characters:
Gaffney Chicago Medical Center Staff
Noah Sexton
Dr. Noah Sexton
Played By: Roland Buck III
April Sexton's younger brother and going through his residency at Chicago Med. He has a tendency to get himself into trouble and is a constant source of worry for his sister.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Both his sister and Maggie note that he has potential, however, he is unwilling to put in the effort to become a doctor.
- The Casanova: Is often seen flirting with the nurses in the ED. Then tries to ask out Sarah Reese on dates several times.
- Character Development: Initially portrayed as the opposite of his sister, however, through harsh lessons and advice given by other doctors, he begins to wise up.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish sibling to his sister's responsible sibling, much to Ethan's displeasure. Their parents are aware of it, yet still, support him regardless, and expect his sister to do the same.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Seems to frequently take advantage of his sister's concern for him, but when she contracts TB and subsequently miscarries, he stays by her side as often as he can. Additionally, when he encounters difficulty as a med student, he asks Reese to help him on a case, and when she gives him possible suggestions, he lies to Dr. Choi about it, stating that he came up with the idea himself, however, when confronted, he admits and apologies to her.
- Put on a Bus: Is fired by Ethan in season six after helping a patient commit assisted suicide.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: While assisted suicide is illegal in Illinois, and Noah should have been reported and charged for the crime, at the end of the day the patient was suffering an incredible amount and Noah clearly does not regret his actions.
- Shameless Self-Promoter: In his debut appearance, he took to delivering lab results on a patient to Dr. Choi and taking credit for them so to earn Choi's favor, to Reese's ire. Though he does apologize later, he asks her not to tell his sister.
- Ship Tease: With Sarah Reese. It never leads anywhere.
- Spoiled Brat: Is implied via a conversation between April and Lieutenant Kelly Severide that Noah was the golden boy of the family, the one who got to medical school despite April being the more academic and hard-working of the two. His irresponsible behavior only attributes to this.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Seriously subverted. It is fairly obvious that in real life Noah should have gotten reported and charged for helping the patient commit suicide. Getting fired from Med and finding employment in the position of the deceased patient is most definitely the best outcome he could have asked for.
- Tough Love: In Season 2, "Deliver Us" he tries to garner assistance from Ethan and then April to solve a case as the admission to earning a med spot at Med, they both sharply rebuke him that he cannot have others carry his water for them, prompting him to solve the case. It pays off.
Elsa Curry
Dr. Elsa Curry
Played By: Molly Bernard
A medical student first introduced in season 4.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is extremely blunt with patients, so much so that Dr. Choi, Dr. Manning, and Dr. Charles have to call her out on her lacking bedside manner several times, however, from time to time she does make an effort to act politely with patients.
- Odd Friendship: With Dr. Charles. She at first rebuffs his attempts at making conversation, but slowly they start to work well together.
- Put on a Bus
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: When a woman comes in with an ectopic pregnancy and refuses to terminate the pregnancy due to religious reasonings, Dr. Curry bargains that if the woman knew for certain the fetus was dead she would go into surgery in order to save her life. She rigs the systems on the fetal monitors to make the woman believe the baby is dead. Dr. Manning believes her lie that the machine is simply broken, however, Dr. Charles does not and calls her out on this.
- The Smart Guy: Can rig entire computer systems and is often seen doing school work on her breaks.
- The Spock: Makes all of her medical decisions based on the odds and probabilities of success, but has extreme difficulties with empathy. When she has to deal with patients on a personal level, she will couch everything in technical terms but is almost incapable of offering meaningful reassurance or comfort.
Joey Thomas
Joey Thomas
Played By: Peter Mark Kendall
A lab tech in pathology who dates Sarah Reese.
- Satellite Love Interest: For Dr. Reese. Proven by the fact that right after Sarah leaves Med for good, he is seen exactly one last time before disappearing for good.
- The Smart Guy
- Put on a Bus: Pretty much disappears after Season 4.
Nina Shore
Dr. Nina Shore
Played By: Patti Murin
Chicago Med's pathologist. She finds investigating all the strange and unusual ways people die to be a fun and exciting profession while most of the hospital staff find her to be a little odd. She begins a relationship with Will Halstead in Season 2.
- Really Gets Around: She cheerfully rattles off a very long list of hospital staff she dated prior to Will.
- Put on a Bus: Following season 4, she no longer appears at Gaffney. This is largely due to her real-life actor, Patti Murin departing alongside her husband Colin Donnell.
Robin Charles
Dr. Robin Charles
Played By: Mekia Cox
An epidemiologist and Dr. Charles's eldest daughter. Starts dating Dr. Rhodes in season two.
- Disappeared Dad: Daniel was barely around after he and Robin's mother Cece split up.
- Put on a Bus: Early on in season three Robin decides that she doesn't want to be controlled by her illness anymore and decides to cut ties with Med and Chicago and flies back to Minneapolis to be with her mother.
- The Bus Came Back: In season four episode fifteen, Robin returns to Chicago to tour Gaffney with her mother, reconnecting with Connor and her father in the process
- In season five episode nine, Robin returns once more as her mother's health is worsening.
- The Smart Guy
Stanley Stohl
Dr. Stanley Stohl
Played By: Eddie Jemison
Chief of the ED who is generally disliked by his subordinates due to his abrasive nature.
- Da Chief: Of the ED. Until he is fired by the hospital's COO for arbitrary reasonings. Dr. Lanik takes over for him.
- Jerkass: Is nicknamed "The Troll" by his fellow coworkers, if that's any indication.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rarely though. In episode one of season three, he finds a way for a young boy to stay longer in the hospital, as the boy lived in a rough part of town and could have gotten further injured had he been sent back home alone.
- Put on a Bus
Jeff Clarke
Jeff Clarke
Played By: Jeff Hephner
Formerly a firefighter with Chicago Fire Department, he found himself having to retire on disability due to a back injury. Not content with sitting at home, he went back to school and is now an intern at Chicago Med's ED. He and Natalie Manning's husband (also named Jeff) were good friends and they served together in the Middle East. He and Natalie begin to pursue a relationship in Season 2.
- Birds of a Feather: Works together multiple times with Dr. Choi, no doubt due in part to their military background.
- The Bus Came Back: He had a brief run on Chicago Fire but proved to be so popular that the producers brought him back on Med, giving him a career change in the process.
- Career-Ending Injury: He badly injured his back, ending his career as a firefighter.
- One-Steve Limit: His best friend, Natalie's deceased husband, was also named "Jeff", and they were collectively known as "The Two Jeffs".
- Put on a Bus: Jeff gets matched at a hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii after completing medical school.
David Downey
Dr. David Downey
Played By: Gregg Henry
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He may seem lazy and dress oddly, however, he is Gaffney's top surgeon, with many rich clients selecting Gaffney simply because he worked there. This is emphasized after he dies, as many of said rich clientele become reluctant to be operated there. However, in Season 4, his protegee, Connor is assigned to operate on, a sheik, largely due to Connor having previously worked under Dr. Downey.
- Character Death: Succumbs to his cancer in the Season 1 finale.
- Jerkass: Initially, to Connor Rhodes such as forcing him to serve him tea, however, this is merely a test to see if he can handle the pressures of the O.R.
