According to Deadline, Taylor Kinney (The Other Woman, The Vampire Diaries), who plays Lieutenant Kelly Severide on NBC’s Chicago Fire, will be taking a leave of absence from the show. Kinney is reportedly doing so because he is preoccupied with a personal matter.
News of the actor’s leave was revealed to the rest of the cast and crew members sometime on Friday. Deadline suggests that upcoming scripts will likely be changed or rewritten in accommodation with Kinney’s absence.
Via IMDB, Chicago Fire tells the story of firefighters and paramedics in the city of Chicago, both on a personal and professional level. Kinney has starred as Severide since the first episode of the show in 2012 and has maintained his role until now.
Kinney’s portrayal of Severide quickly became a fan favorite when the drama first premiered. Severide is a firefighter who is part of Rescue Squad 3 and is widely known as a ladies’ man. At the end of the tenth season, however, Severide married Stella Kidd, played by Miranda Rae Mayo (Pretty Little Liars, Blood & Oil), who is also a firefighter and lieutenant at the Chicago Fire Department. Kinney’s coworker of ten years, Jesse Spencer (House, Uptown Girls), who played firefighter Matthew Casey until his departure from the show in 2021, also returned for the season ten finale.
Kinney was nominated for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor at the People’s Choice Awards three times in a row, and ultimately won in 2015. He has gone on to reprise his role on Chicago Fire spinoffs Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med.
Chicago Fire is currently streaming on Peacock. New episodes air every Wednesday at 9/8c on NBC and the next day on Peacock. A promo for the upcoming thirteenth episode is available below.