List of Chicago Med characters


This is a list of fictional characters in the television series Chicago Med, the third spin-off in the Chicago franchise. The article deals with the series' main, recurring, and minor characters.

Main

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Dr. Will Halstead

Dr. Will Halstead is an attending in the Emergency Department. He was first introduced to the Chicago franchise in the Chicago P.D. episode "Say Her Real Name" as Detective Jay Halstead's estranged brother who drops by to visit in a two-episode arc. The character moved to Med after being introduced in the show's backdoor pilot on Chicago Fire and Gehlfuss was made a regular cast member when the characters at Chicago Medical Center who appeared in both Fire and P.D. were given their own spin-off.
Dr. Halstead was initially written as a plastic surgeon who left his private practice in New York City and returned home to Chicago. After the backdoor pilot of Chicago Med, he decided to switch specialties to emergency medicine. When Med first premiered, he was Chief Resident. As of season 2 he has been an attending. He is characterized as a competent and compassionate doctor who tries to do what he thinks is best for his patient but his single-minded stubbornness has sometimes clouded his judgment. Charge Nurse Maggie Lockwood once described him as "a slightly anal, overly stubborn, rule breaking, control freak".
In season 1 Dr. Halstead clashes a number of times with Dr. Connor Rhodes, a trauma surgery fellow, and Sharon Goodwin, the chief administrator, over hospital practices and policies. He particularly disliked Dr. Rhodes as he felt the latter was an entitled "rich kid" from the more affluent northern suburbs. They eventually call an unspoken truce by the end of the season as they developed a mutual professional respect for one another. During the episode "Choices" he finds himself in hot water after ignoring a patient's DNR and faces a lawsuit as a result. He also earns the ire of attending Dr. Kendra Perrington in the episode "Inheritance" for overriding her at the request of the patient's brother, who was his former schoolmate, only to find out that she was on the hiring committee. This put his job prospects in jeopardy as he was in the last year of his residency. In the season 1 finale he receives a letter of offer for an attending position in the ED, much to his relief. For much of early season 2, he stresses out over his finances as he still had to pay off his student loans and sizeable malpractice insurance. He initially sees final year medical student Jeff Clarke as a rival for Natalie's affections but develops a friendship with Clarke and often encourages him.
During the first season, Dr. Halstead had feelings for the pediatric emergency medicine fellow, Dr. Natalie Manning, who was then pregnant with her late husband's baby. It caused some awkwardness as her mother-in-law was extremely protective and initially viewed him with suspicion. He eventually decided to move on and starts dating pathologist, Nina Shore. They move in together in the season 2 episode "Free Will". They break up in finale of season 2 because he still has feelings for Dr. Manning. In the first episode of season 3 “Nothing To Fear”, she returns from a three-month sabbatical and tells him she also has feelings for him too and they became a couple. In season 4 they prepare for their wedding but Dr. Halstead finds himself in a difficult position when a neighborhood friend he made a house call to turns out to be federally listed criminal wanted by both the CPD and FBI. His brother convinces him to continue making the house calls in order to feed information to the joint CPD-FBI task force.
When he was first introduced on P.D., it was implied that he and Jay had not seen each other for some time. Jay still has some lingering bitterness over the fact that Will was not around when their late mother was ill. Despite this, they remain close and look out for one another. The brothers had a difficult relationship with their late father Pat as he disapproved of both his sons' occupations. The Halsteads are from a working class Irish Catholic background, as implied by Will's statements about growing up in Canaryville, a historically Irish neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago, and being an altar boy in his youth. Will attended De La Salle Institute, where he excelled academically but was also bullied by the more popular students and given the derogatory nickname "Ginger Spice". It is likely that he and his brother were ostracized for coming from a lower socioeconomic background as Jay has also made a reference to being ostracized by his more affluent counterparts at private school.
Dr. Halstead plays the guitar and performed at weddings to pay his way through medical school. It was a reference to actor Nick Gehlfuss's days as a busker in New York City when he first entered the acting industry.
He is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox like his father.

Dr. Natalie Manning

Dr. Natalie Manning is a pediatrician originally from Seattle who is an attending in emergency medicine specializing in pediatrics.
Natalie was widowed when her husband, Jeff, a soldier, was killed in Afghanistan and gave birth to their son, Owen. She is revealed to be a skilled violinist, as seen in season 1 episode "Fallback" and season 2 episode "Brother's Keeper".
In season 1, Natalie is portrayed as a caring doctor who sometimes becomes overly emotionally connected to her young patients. In Season 1, Episode 10, "Clarity", Dr Will Halstead kisses her, showing her that he has feelings for her. However, as she is grieving her late husband, she gently tells Dr Halstead that she does have feelings for him, it just "isn't the right time yet".
At the start of Season 2, she begins a relationship with Jeff Clarke. However, she breaks up with him after he "humiliates" her during a M&M review. He also reveals that he wished she was his wife, and not his ex Lisa, which makes her angry that he didn't tell her before she let him "into her life and her bed". After the breakup, she begins to have feelings for Will, but he is in a relationship with Nina Shore. After their break up, he ends up dancing with Natalie while at Noah's graduation party.
In the first episode of the third season “Nothing To Fear”, Natalie returns from a three-month sabbatical and tells Will she has feelings for him and they became a couple. They go on a break near the end of Season 3, where he drunkenly kisses one of Natalie's old co-workers. After she finds out, she becomes angry at him but he proposes to her in the season 3 finale anyway.
Season 4 sees the couple planning for their wedding, which shows that Natalie accepted his proposal. It also shows the couple attending Pre- Cana together. After Will was brought into protective custody during their wedding, they eventually broke up and Natalie returned his ring. At the end of Season 4, Agent Lee convinces Natalie to take Will back, so she goes after him and gets into his car as she was going to tell him that she still loves him, until a car hit them.
Natalie was brought into the ED at the start of Season 5, where she was diagnosed with a TBI. While unconscious, her ex-boyfriend, Phillip Davis slipped a ring onto her finger and convinced everyone that they were engaged, except for Dr Marcel who brings it up with Phillip and tells Will. She eventually finds out and calls it off, before trying to get back with Will, who has moved on to Dr Asher. It is unknown if she still likes Will or if he has any feelings left for her, but it is assumed that she has feelings for Dr Marcel after they were in a hostage situation in the Season 5 finale.

April Sexton

April Sexton is a nurse in the Emergency Department. She was first introduced in Chicago Fire as a friend of Lieutenant Kelly Severide.
April's parents were immigrants from Brazil. Their original family name was Suassuna but they anglicized it to "Sexton" as it was easier to pronounce. She attended high school with Severide and they share a close friendship. He had been going through a rebellious phase in high school after being abandoned by his father and the Sextons often invited him to their house out of concern.
April is courted by an ex-pro football player, Tate Jenkins whom she meets when Tate brings his young son into the ED. She is initially skeptical and views Tate as a "player," but after getting to know each other, she develops a trust in him and they move in together. He proposes to her in the episode "Inherent Bias".
In season 2, April is infected with Tuberculosis from a needle stick in the ED and has to deal with the ramifications in her personal and professional life. In the season 2 fall finale, it was revealed she that she is pregnant. However, the treatment for her tuberculosis put her in a difficult position as the medication was potentially harmful to the fetus. She refused to have an abortion due to her Catholic faith. However, April suffers a miscarriage and her engagement to Tate ends.
In the season 2 finale, “Love Hurts” the doctors celebrate Noah Sexton's graduation party after he graduated medical school. April walks away from the party noticing that Noah is having a lot of fun. She walks over to a bridge and overlooks the water. As she stands there, Dr. Ethan Choi walks over and kisses her.
In season 3, Choi and April began a relationship, which they hide from the ED. A nurse grows suspicious of them and asks her questions, which April simply ignores. Later on, she opens up about her relationship to her coworkers in the ED. The two often clash in the ED about medical judgements over their patients, but continue to be very supportive of each other.

Dr. Sarah Reese

Dr. Sarah Reese is a recent medical school graduate and psychiatry resident. The character was not introduced in the backdoor pilot on Chicago Fire.
In season 1 she was a final year medical student, still undecided about which specialty to choose. During her rotation in the ED, she decided against emergency medicine after a patient she had diagnosed chose to go against medical advice, leaving her discouraged. She chose pathology, but soon realized that she did not want to spend the rest of her training in a lab without any contact with patients, and even fainted from the stress. However, as her match was legally binding it meant that she would be left without a job if she rejected Chicago Med's offer. She worked as a barista until the head of psychiatry, Dr. Charles, offered her a spot in his department. She discovers that she enjoys interacting with patients and learning about the psychological side of medicine, although it leads her to subconsciously "shrink" her own colleagues, much to the nurses' amusement. Season 2 sees the character undergo further development as a full-fledged doctor and resident. At times she has let her emotions get in the way and Dr. Charles has had to step in to caution her. She has difficulty dealing with death and the experience of having to call time of death on a patient gets to her. During a night shift she had to make the call three times in a row, leading to her breaking down into tears at the end of the shift.
Her mother is a litigation attorney, implied to be a career woman who loves Sarah but is emotionally distant from her. During the season 1 finale, Sarah's mother does not attend her graduation from medical school but sends her money. She is a main cast member from season one until season four and appears for the final time in the season four premiere "Be My Better Half". This episode takes place after she found out that Doctor Charles discovered that her father was suspected to be a serial killer, causing a fallout between them. She decided to leave Chicago Med and joined Baylor, as she said she could no longer trust Dr. Charles when he kept information about her father from her.

Dr. Connor Rhodes

Dr. Connor Rhodes is a cardiothoracic surgery fellow. The character was not introduced in the backdoor pilot aired on Chicago Fire, as Colin Donnell only joined the cast as a series regular when Chicago Med was picked up.
Dr. Rhodes attended Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in Mexico and spent a year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia following his residency. He was initially a trauma surgery fellow but switched to cardiothoracic surgery under the mentorship of Dr. Downey. Since Dr. Downey's death he has been mentored by Dr. Latham, with whom he has a difficult relationship.
Dr. Rhodes comes from a wealthy background and was written as a "local boy" who left Chicago to escape his family before returning many years later. His background was a source of embarrassment and he tried to hide it from his colleagues in the ED for some time, although they came to accept him as one of them and would good-naturedly tease him whenever his name appears in a lifestyle magazine. His relationship with his family is complicated and it deteriorated further after his mother's suicide. His father was against Connor's choosing medicine over the family business and would repeatedly undermine and discourage him to the point where father and son are barely on speaking terms. In the episode "Natural History" his sister Claire resorts to calling him at work and then confronting him in person to call him out on abandoning her in his attempt to get away from their father years ago. At the end of the episode he reluctantly visits her at the family business to take her to dinner, much to her delight. Dr. Rhodes’ mother suffered from chronic depression which caused her to be absent for much of his childhood. Connor remained in denial of this fact, remembering her as a doting and involved parent and blaming his father's infidelities for her suicide. In the episode “Forever Hold Your Peace”, Connor accepts the truth about his relationship with his mother at his father's prodding, but his father dies suddenly before they can reconcile. In the following episode, he visits his father's body in the morgue, and admits that, while Cornelius was a bad father, he was also a bad son.
He was in a relationship with attending Dr. Samantha "Sam" Zanetti but they break up in the episode "Saint". In season 2 he met epidemiologist Dr. Robin Charles at the hospital cafeteria and they become friends, although it initially caused some awkwardness once he found out that she was Dr. Daniel Charles' daughter. They began cohabiting in the episode "Win Loss". Robin develops health problems that cause difficulties in their relationship; she begins behaving erratically, and it's discovered that she has a brain tumor. The tumor is successfully removed, but the relationship remains strained throughout her recovery. In the episode "Ties That Bind", Robin broke up with Rhodes by leaving a letter on the table for him to read. He confronted Dr. Charles on the break up and vowed that he will find her to make the relationship work. However, Dr. Charles said that Robin had wanted to get treatment for her condition in peace.
In Season 3, Rhodes often clashes with Dr. Ava Bekker, a doctor from South Africa who Dr. Latham assigned him to work with. The two have a "love-hate" relationship due to their different medical opinions and personalities. At the end of the episode "Folie à Deux" they are seen kissing one another. In “Born This Way”, Rhodes is in the kitchen making breakfast as Ava puts on her clothes. Rhodes seems to want to pursue the relationship, but Bekker tells him that it was a one-time thing. However, in Season 4 they appear to be giving the relationship a try, although it later falls apart due to Connor's suspicions of Bekker.
In Season 4, Rhodes is on his way to the Mayo Clinic when he is offered the opportunity to run Med's newly-developing hybrid operating room in the hospital's emergency department, a job which he takes. The hybrid OR was funded primarily by an anonymous donation from his father, solicited by Dr. Bekker without Rhodes’ knowledge. When Rhodes learns of the donation, his father suggests that Bekker traded sex with him in exchange for the donation. Rhodes breaks up with Bekker and becomes paranoid that she has been deliberately manipulating events to ensure she will remain part of his life, going so far as to accuse her of deliberately exposing herself to HIV and botching his father's heart surgery. When the failed operation is revealed to be due to a faulty implant, Connor briefly considers that he may have been wrong, however his father's sudden death by an insulin overdose, and Bekker's subsequent behaviour, leads him to believe that she is the killer.
In season 5, after the deaths of both his father and Bekker who committed suicide after admitting to killing Cornelius in an attempt to win him back, Connor leaves Chicago to have a fresh start and even bids the others goodbye.

Dr. Ethan Choi

Lieutenant Commander Dr. Ethan Choi, USNR, is a resident in the Emergency Department and a former active duty United States Navy officer. Like Dr. Rhodes, the character was not in the backdoor pilot and only introduced when Chicago Med was picked up. He is generally reserved and reticent, which Dr. Charles attributes to his military background. His aloof and detached exterior sometimes intimidates the medical students and junior residents under him, but he has shown to be sympathetic and supportive with them, as well as his other coworkers and the CFD paramedics. He is of Korean descent and once implied that he has been subjected to racism during his childhood, as he grew up in a neighborhood where there were "not many families with the last name Choi".
Dr. Choi is well-regarded by his colleagues in the ED. Beginning in season 2 he takes over from Dr. Halstead as Chief Resident and has an unforgettable first day, much to everyone's amusement as they were used to seeing him calm and in control. He initially tries to run his own system but quickly realizes that Maggie and the nurses are actually the ones in charge. After his rocky start, he returned to his usual dependable self.
A second generation Navy veteran, Dr. Choi switched to the reserves to begin his residency and is revealed to be suffering from PTSD. He had been coping despite suffering from insomnia and nightmares and initially resisted treatment, as he was still functional at work. Eventually he seeks proper treatment after breaking down in Dr. Charles' office, but used his work as an excuse to put off subsequent counselling sessions. After a series of emotional near-breakdowns and a heated confrontation with a patient's father, he resumes counselling and joins a support group at the VA. He adopts a parrot who refuses to fly, due to trauma from being verbally abused and being cooped up in a hoarder's house for months. and Dr. Choi also volunteers at the zoo as part of his therapy. He has only ever discussed his military service with fellow veterans, as seen in the Chicago P.D. episode "Forty-Caliber Bread Crumb", when he has drinks with former Army Rangers and combat veterans Detective Jay Halstead and CPD tech analyst Greg "Mouse" Gurwitch at Molly's. Despite his cool and collected demeanor, it is apparent that he has been deeply affected by the horrors he witnessed overseas as well as in the ED. He has a notebook in which he writes down the name, date and time of death and description of every patient who has died on his watch. In the season 5 episode "I Can’t Imagine the Future" he is recalled by the Navy to cover for an aircraft carrier medical officer who had fallen ill and would be deployed for two months.
He lived with his then girlfriend Dr. Vicky Glass, who works at the nearby VA hospital and is a fellow Navy veteran. She is one of the few people he has confided in about his PTSD.
At the beginning of Season 3, Dr. Choi is seen to be in a relationship with ED nurse April Sexton, though they are keeping the relationship quiet at work. This is due to April's belief that she will be viewed negatively if her co-workers knew of the relationship. However, they make the relationship public after April realizes that no one would look down on her or assume she would receive special treatment because she is dating an ED doctor. Dr. Choi and April clash over how best to handle the troubles of his estranged sister Emily, and at the end of Season 3 she breaks up with him because of this.

Sharon Goodwin

Sharon Goodwin, RN, MPH, MBA is the Chief of Services and oversees the day-to-day operations of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. A former OR nurse, she is generally the final authority when it comes to medico-legal issues, professional ethics and, when necessary, disciplining.
Sharon was happily married to Bert. He had been trying to persuade her to retire and entice her with exotic locations to travel to. In the episode "Intervention" they celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary. However, Bert leaves her in the season 1 finale. The first several episodes of season 2 sees her dealing with the emotional fallout and clearing out his belongings from their house. In the episode "Extreme Measures" she initiates divorce proceedings and tells the attorney that she and her husband were past reconciliation. Her first love had been photojournalist Reggie Dixon when she was an eighteen-year-old high school graduate but she chose to attend college rather than travel the world with him on his assignments. Bert did not appear on-screen until he brought his new lady-friend to the hospital in the season 2 episode, "Ctrl Alt".

Dr. Daniel Charles

Dr. Daniel Charles is the Chief of Psychiatry at Chicago Med. Outside of psychiatry, he is sometimes called in to help with difficult patients or speak to family members. The character has also crossed over to Chicago P.D. whenever Voight's team are dealing with a suspect or victim suffering from a psychiatric disorder which renders them dangerous and unpredictable. He has also been mentioned several times as the "shrink" Voight prefers to send his detectives to when they need counselling.
A well-respected veteran psychiatrist at Chicago Med, Dr. Charles combines his human touch with instinct and intuition to diagnose patients. The ED physicians would turn to him for a second opinion. Occasionally he has had to call out doctors in the ED on becoming too personally involved or invested in patients.
He has been married and divorced at least three times. His third wife is from Spain. One of his daughters Robin works at Chicago Med as an epidemiologist and was in a relationship with Dr. Rhodes. In the season 2 finale, he is shot after a patient waited a long time to be seen and didn't get the care he needed.

Maggie Lockwood

Maggie Lockwood Campbell is the charge nurse of the Emergency Department and runs a tight shift with a firm hand and a quick-witted sense of humor. She has no qualms about calling out the doctors when needed and they generally defer to her for guidance during a chaotic shift. She is also a certified Emergency Medical Technician.
Underneath her no-nonsense exterior, Maggie is compassionate and protective of her nurses and the other doctors and staff on her shift, often looking out for them as well. In season 1 she and April made sure the then-pregnant Dr. Manning did not overwork and was her "birthing partner". She also looks out for rookie resident Dr. Reese and frequently reminds her to "go home" or "get some sleep". The doctors sometimes use her as a "sounding board" and vent to her after a difficult shift.
In the episode "Natural History", it is revealed that she comes from a large and close-knit extended family and has a sister, Denise who was assigned male at birth, had gender confirmation surgery and moved to Dallas, Texas.
As seen in "Be My Better Half", Maggie is fluent in American Sign Language, enough to understand and translate for a deaf patient.

Dr. Ava Bekker

Dr. Ava Bekker is a cardiothoracic surgeon from South Africa with whom Dr. Rhodes begins to butt heads on professional boundaries.
In season 4, Ava becomes an attending in the CT department. She and Dr. Rhodes also have a brief romantic relationship, which ends poorly.
Over the course of the fourth season, Bekker successfully solicits a donation from Rhodes’ father to fund his hybrid OR project, becomes exposed to HIV when Rhodes’ scalpel cuts her hand during an operation, and performs a valve replacement on Rhodes’ father which subsequently fails. Rhodes becomes convinced that Bekker has deliberately manipulated events to ensure that the pair remain involved in each other's lives, although it appears throughout the season that he is simply paranoid, with all incidents having innocent explanations.
However, when Rhode's father dies suddenly of an insulin overdose while recovering from a second surgery, Bekker tells Connor that he is now “free” of his father and able to resume a relationship with her, apparently believing that his father was the only thing keeping them apart. Connor, shocked by this, rejects her, telling her is too late, so she furiously leaves.
In season 5, when the authorities start an investigation of the suspicious death of Cornelius Rhodes, she tries to get her revenge on Connor by suggesting them that Connor might be his father's killer. Realizing what she's doing, Connor starts arguing with her more and more, until Dr. Isidore Latham, seeing their animosity, declares he's close to solving the case, therefore Bekker admits to Connor of murdering his father in an effort to winning him back and then commits suicide by slitting her own throat with a scalpel. A horrified Connor attempts to save her but is too late.

Dr. Crockett Marcel

Dr. Crockett Marcel is a trauma surgeon fellow who eventually replaces Dr. Connor Rhodes after he resigns from Med for a fresh start. He gets suspicious of Phillip Davis after noticing that Dr. Natalie Manning didn't have a wedding ring on her when she was brought in the ER after being hit by a car. He later revealed this to Will Halstead.

Recurring

Family members

;Recurring

''Chicago P.D.''