Why Gabby Dawson From Chicago Fire Looks So Familiar
Dick Wolf is responsible for some of the most significant shared universes on TV in the last three decades. Beginning with "Law & Order" and all of its spinoffs, Wolf continued into the present with the "FBI" universe of shows, and the "One Chicago" universe, which includes "Chicago Fire." The series chronicling the exploits of Chicago's bravest follows the lives of firefighters in the fictional Firehouse 51, where they are led by the capable and dedicated Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker).
Boden has many fearless firefighters under his command, but one of the most intriguing stories is that of Gabby Dawson. She began on Ambulance 61 before becoming a firefighter. While there, she met her husband, adopted a foster son, and owned a bar. Eventually, she lost the foster son to his biological father, got divorced, and moved to Puerto Rico.
Monica Raymund portrays Dawson for 139 episodes over eight seasons and also plays the character in a handful of episodes of "Chicago P.D." and "Chicago Med." She has been working in the industry since 2007 as an actor and a director. Here is why Monica Raymund from "Chicago Fire" looks so familiar.
Monica Raymund was a human lie detector on Lie to Me
Fox was one of the kings of network TV in the 2000s with shows like "24," "Lost," and "Bones." But one of the more under-the-radar shows the network produced was "Lie to Me." Starring the legendary Tim Roth ("The Incredible Hulk") as Cal Lightman, the series follows his fantastic ability to tell if someone is lying simply by watching them. As a human lie detector, his work is precious to law enforcement and anyone else who needs the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Monica Raymund plays Ria Torres, a TSA Agent recruited by Lightman to come work for his firm. While she is the only one in the firm with no formal education in the science of lie detection, her natural ability fascinates her co-workers and simultaneously is a point of contention. Lightman doesn't make it easy for her to fit in and forces her to make up for her lack of education by being more effective than anyone else.
In an interview with CineSnob, Raymund discussed what it was like working with Roth. "He is someone I trust," she said. "The most profound thing I've learned from him so far is that you can be just as creative on the TV as you are working on a play. Watching him, I understand that there are common techniques you can use in both the TV world and on stage."
She was a fiery attorney on The Good Wife
There is no shortage of legal dramas for fans to quench their thirst for justice on a weekly basis. From "Law & Order" to "Boston Legal," there is always some kind of angle to make the case-of-the-week approach feel fresh and interesting. In "The Good Wife," Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) returns to her legal career as a litigator after over a decade of being a stay-at-home mother when her husband is caught up in a political sex scandal.
Monica Raymund appears as Dana Lodge, a lawyer in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. She is typically on the other side of the legal battles headed up by Florrick's firm, Stern, Lockhart & Gardner. She has an in-office affair with fellow State's Attorney Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) that causes him to lose a promotion. She also is assigned with him to investigate Will Gardner (Josh Charles), a named partner and ladies' man. This brings her into a flirty, albeit manipulative, relationship with Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi) in order to gain inside information about the partner.
The series also stars Christine Baranski ("Mamma Mia!"), Matthew Goode ("Watchman"), Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("The Walking Dead"), and Alan Cumming ("X2: X-Men United"). It also spawned a spinoff, "The Good Fight," that featured the talents of Rose Leslie ("Game of Thrones") and Delroy Lindo ("Gone in 60 Seconds").
She landed her first leading role in Hightown
In a world of streaming services, studios find themselves able to take some more risks in the kind of content they produce, not having to stick so close to network TV guidelines. Starz dove deep into the darkness of the human condition with their series, "Hightown," which follows a National Marine Fisheries Service Agent in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her life is thrust into chaos when she discovers a body on the beach, plunging her into the middle of the opioid crisis.
Monica Raymund earned her first lead role as Jackie Quiñones, a hard-partying agent who struggles with her own past and the addictions that come with it. In the midst of navigating her personal and professional life, her love life is a central focus, as Jackie is a lesbian Latina — a responsibility Raymund didn't take lightly.
"We're now at the point where we might be normalizing and destigmatizing the characteristics of the roles and the humans that occupy that space," Raymund told NBC News. "It is still quite nascent, but I think that we're moving quickly in terms of the exposure that we're seeing of queer, BIPOC characters. To be able to really be with this lead character but focusing more on the crime, on the drama, on the story, as opposed to how she looks or how she identifies, is a huge leap forward."
She was part of an important cast in Bros
"Bros" is a movie that took your typical romantic comedy tropes and switched up the usual casting by using two gay men in the lead roles and a cast almost entirely made up of openly gay actors. Monica Raymund appeared in the film as Tina, one of the straight characters who is married with children. While the film was largely about the budding relationship between the two main characters, she and her husband, played by Guillermo Diaz ("Scandal"), served as examples of allies in the gay community. Her role was small, but carried the weight and importance of being a part of a cast showing young members of the LBGTQIA+ community that they aren't alone and that there are parts out there for them.
It was an ambitious endeavor to make a film that subverted the heterosexual expectations of the rom-com genre by making gay men the leads, but one of the stars, Luke Macfarlane, had high hopes for the film. He told CinemaBlend, "I remember my older sister going to see 'Dirty Dancing' and then the family discussion that happened after. Because that movie was so provocative for its time... I hope the same thing happens for 'Bros.'"