Chicago Med Actors Who Are Actually From Chicago
Since 2012, viewers have been transported to Chicago, Illinois, to get a glimpse into the lives of firefighters, police officers, healthcare workers, lawyers, and paramedics in the "One Chicago" NBC television franchise, which includes "Chicago Fire," "Chicago P.D.," "Chicago Med," and, for one season, "Chicago Justice." "Chicago Med" specifically focuses on the personal and professional lives of the doctors and nurses at the fictional Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, per Netflix.
Unlike many other shows, all of the shows in the "One Chicago" franchise are actually shot on location in Chicago. According to The Cinemaholic, the real-life Rush University Medical Center, located on West Congress Parkway in Chicago, serves as the fictional Gaffney Medical Center. The outdoor scenes and some of the interior shots are done in the Rush University Medical Center. The majority of the filming actually takes place at the Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and Molly's Bar, the establishment featured at the end of nearly every episode of "Chicago Med," used to be filmed at Lottie's in Bucktown, but is now filmed in a replica built in the studio.
One of the show's creators, Dick Wolf, chose the location for its wholesome qualities. "Anything that is considered true blue, all-American, it's believable in Chicago more than the strips on the coast," Wolf told the Chicago Tribune. "This is literally the heart of the country, and all those Midwestern values are understandable to the country."
Are any of the Chicago Med actors actually from Chicago?
Despite the fact that each character on "Chicago Med" seems so attached to the city of Chicago, an exhaustive search has shown that none of the actors from the main cast of the show are actually from the Windy City. Even if they aren't originally from Chicago, the actors on "Chicago Med" still have an admiration for what has become their second home since the series first aired in 2015. In 2017, S. Epatha Merkerson, who plays Dr. Sharon Goodwin on the show, told The Observor that she found Chicago to be a midwestern version of Hollywood. "I'm originally from Detroit," Merkerson told The Observer. "I've lived in New York nearly 40 years now, but I find Chicago to be like a midwest Hollywood. The theatre and music scene is what I love most."
The only downside to filming in Chicago, as many might imagine, is the long winter season in the city. "[Chicago's] very easy to shoot in except for the six months of winter when it's not easy to shoot anywhere," the show's creator, Dick Wolf, told the Chicago Tribune. Oliver Platt, who portrays Dr. Daniel Charles on the show, told the Chicago Tribune that, snowy and cold winters aside, he values the city's lack of pretension. "What's appealing about it to me is it's absolutely, among many other things, a cultural capital, but the culture in Chicago is on display with a total lack of pretension," Platt told the Chicago Tribune. "To me, it just goes hand in hand with the character of the city."