Chicago Fire Characters Who Missed The Mark With Fans

With a 15th season premiering in October 2026 and more than 290 episodes under its belt, "Chicago Fire" has become a stalwart series for NBC. Each week, the show takes us into the lives of the firefighters and other rescuers who work at the fictional Firehouse 51 in Chicago. There, Chief Wallace Boden leads operations, alongside Captain Matt Casey and Lieutenant Kelly Severide. Between rescues and emergencies, the crew members also reckon with their personal lives, often entering tangled relationships with one another. Matt, for example, marries paramedic Gabriela Dawson; when they break up, he ends up with Sylvie Brett, another paramedic.

The cast of characters is something of a revolving door, with more than a dozen fan-favorite actors leaving the series over the past 14 years. Characters like Kelly have stuck around for every season, while prominent names like Jessica "Chili" Chilton were written off after only a season or two — but they still made an impression, good or bad. Below, read about the characters who didn't hit the mark with "Chicago Fire" fans, whether they were blatant villains or subtly shady toward the other firehouse rescuers.

For the first six seasons, paramedic Gabriela "Gabby" Dawson (Monica Raymund) was a mainstay on "Chicago Fire," working as one of the few female paramedics at Firehouse 51 and co-owning a bar with some of her colleagues. Gabby's romance with Matt Casey is written into the show because of the actors' on-screen chemistry. However, their relationship faces complications due to working together and, later, Gabby's desire to adopt a young boy named Louie before Matt feels ready. 

Gabby and Matt marry in Season 5, episode "One Hundred," but separate at the end of Season 6 when she accepts a position in her native Puerto Rico. Raymund has stayed busy after leaving the show in 2018, appearing on series like "Hightown" and directing an episode of "Law & Order: SVU." "I knew that my six-year contract was coming to an end and I felt like I was hungry to explore a different role, a different story," Raymund told the Chicago Tribune about her decision to leave.

Some "Chicago Fire" fans were ready to see Gabby leave, too. Though viewers admired her perseverance and determination, the character has frequently been called selfish for decisions such as taking the Puerto Rico job without discussing it with Matt and pursuing him in Season 1 while he was engaged to someone else. "She started out fine, but when she started circling Matt when his relationship fell apart, and then got with him when she could was off-putting," a Reddit user summed up. "And then how she just pretty much bails on him in the end (which tbf I think was more of a writer issue), she just became very unlikeable and almost bitter."

In Season 4, new firefighter Stella Kidd is introduced as an old friend of Gabby's. Stella is divorced from Grant Smith (Guy Burnet), an addict whom she helps rescue from an overdose in Season 4, episode "Superhero." Grant ends up attacking Stella with a knife when he sees her embarking on a romance with Kelly Severide. Though Grant appears in only six episodes throughout Seasons 4 and 5, those few scenes help establish him as one of the villains of the series.

Writer Danilo Castro of the franchise-news website One Chicago Center named Grant the No. 1 most disliked "Chicago Fire" character, calling him "the absolute worst." It added, "Smith's actions are loathsome, but to make matters worse, he seemed to relish the trauma he inflicted on his ex-wife ... He was bad news every second he was onscreen, and the damage he caused to some of our favorite characters goes a long way in making us hate him." Showrunner Matt Olmstead shed some light on Grant, saying to The Hollywood Reporter that he's "increasingly unhinged, a guy who was perfectly willing to be supported by her [Stella] and carried by her while he's living out these rock star dreams that fizzled years ago."

Introduced in Season 10, Emma Jacobs (Caitlin Carver, whom you might recognize from 2017's "I, Tonya") is a fill-in paramedic covering for Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) and is partnered with Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith). Emma is quickly revealed to be scheming against her fellow paramedic in a bid to take her job, stealing a mask Violet needs to treat a patient with asthma and threatening to expose her relationship with a superior — information she only discovers after going through Violet's phone. The tipping point comes when Emma runs out of a burning building while treating a patient with Violet.

Emma may not have lasted long on "Chicago Fire," but fans definitely had opinions about her. "I've been watching Chicago enough to be sure that this is the worst character. I hate her so much!" wrote one Redditor. Writer Danilo Castro of One Chicago Center ranked her as No. 9 on the top 10 "Chicago Fire" characters list, writing that while she didn't physically harm anyone, "Her blatant attempts to get ahead, coupled with her poor performance on the job, makes her someone we do not want to see again anytime soon."

Jerry Gorsch (Steven Boyer) is introduced in Season 7 as a field supervisor and almost immediately gets on the bad side of both Kelly Severide and Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) due to his interfering with the department's methods and attempting to get an unqualified family member a job on the squad. Jerry is an ex-firefighter who has a lot to say about those on the field from the comfort of his desk, angering many viewers. "Jerry Gorsch was the perfect example of a kiss-ass, bureaucratic nightmare pest, made even more real by the fact that we all know a Gorsch to an extent ... reports every single one of your perceived screw ups to the boss, and lords even the smallest amount of power they have over you," one Reddit post states.

Jerry's tenure with the firehouse falls apart when it is revealed that he's been using department funds to buy cheap, unsafe gear, as well as embezzling the extra funds. The crew of Firehouse 51 and viewers alike weren't sad to see him go. Writer Danilo Castro of One Chicago Center ranked Jerry as No. 3, noting, "Gorsch was the embodiment of the desk worker who didn't know anything about firefighting, which would have made him unlikable enough, but then it was discovered that he was also embezzling money from the department!"

As a main character for the first 10 seasons of "Chicago Fire," Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) was bound to get on fans' nerves at some point. Matt is dedicated to his crew and often goes out of his way to help people. However, his venture into politics, tendency to pull rank after he becomes captain in Season 6, and complicated relationship with Gabby Dawson before he eventually marries Sylvie Brett all rubbed some viewers the wrong way. Matt is written off the show in Season 10 when he moves to Oregon, though in reality Spencer was ready for new adventures. "There's other things I'd like to do in the future and there's some family I need to take care of," he told USA Today. He did, in fact, return to his native Australia and filmed a Disney+ series.

Fan consensus seems to be that while Matt starts off as a likable and well-written character, things go downhill after he begins abusing his position of power. "He pulled rank WAAAY TOO OFTEN. And for things he didn't even have to. Pulling rank on the very first call as Captain was such a turnoff for the character. Just made him look petty," one Redditor wrote. Another agreed: "I just cannot stand his attitude ... He is immature and a hot head who takes his issues out on all other members of the firehouse. He gets no push back and when he does uses his rank as leverage to get what he wants."

Another character whose likability factor ebbs and flows with fans is Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), who has appeared in all 14 seasons of "Chicago Fire" as the hotheaded and charismatic opposite of his quieter friend and co-worker Matt Casey. In the earlier seasons, Kelly is dealing with his strained relationship with his father, Benny, who was a battalion chief, and has several flings — one of which ends in an impulsive Vegas wedding. However, Kelly settles down over the years, establishing a romance with Stella Kidd, whom he marries in Season 10; he also faces a captaincy promotion in Season 14.

Kinney has found a sense of community in the city of Chicago and with his fellow cast members, telling Us Weekly, "It's never lost on me ... how special it is to be a part of something with the longevity this has." However, some fans seem to think Kelly has lost his spark and that the actor is worn out after 14 seasons, even after Kinney took a brief break from the show in 2023. Viewers, in turn, are burnt out on Kelly and Stella's storylines together, with one Redditor writing, "Once Casey left, Severide is pushed into the main character role which means he's more boring ... I honestly think Kinney is bored by the scripts and the lack of anything interesting to do as they have him focus more on OFI and Stella."

Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo, who is dating Holistic Life Foundation co-founder Andrés González) didn't make her first appearance until Season 4 of "Chicago Fire." However, she has become a main character, making her way up to lieutenant of Firehouse 51 and marrying Kelly Severide. To get there, however, she had to first endure a toxic relationship with ex-husband Grant Smith, prove her mettle by teaching at the Firehouse Academy, and launch a support program for teenage girls, Girls on Fire. 

Stella was absent for a stretch of episodes in Season 10, with her character focusing on Girls on Fire and not communicating with then-fiancé Kelly. Mayo joked to TV Guide that even she was side-eyeing her own character for these actions. "I even notice within myself this judgment of Stella, like, damn," she said. "It was difficult for me to have grace and so I'm curious if the audience's grace factor extending to Stella, what that is going to look like for her versus for Kelly."

But the audience doesn't have much grace, and despite Stella's absence, some viewers complain that she and Kelly have taken over the show. "I think Stella is the worst thing to have happened to Chicago Fire. Making her a major character has ruined Kelly and nearly ruined the whole show," one Redditor wrote. Writer Drew Holbrook of One Chicago Center detailed the fatigue viewers are experiencing when it comes to Stella's dominating screen presence, writing that while her storylines aren't exactly bad, the show no longer feels like it's shared by an ensemble cast. The piece concluded, "If 2026 feels like another year when everything revolves around Stella while other characters spin in place or vanish, more fans will quietly drift away."

Perhaps a more obviously disliked character was Gail McLeod (Michelle Forbes), who appears in the first half of Season 2 of "Chicago Fire." Gail is a government employee with the State of Illinois who is asked to cut Firehouse 51's budget by 10%. Naturally, this puts her at odds with Chief Wallace Boden and the rest of his crew, especially after she almost persuades him into an early retirement and later tries to close the firehouse. Gail is clearly a villain, and fans responded appropriately.

"I LOATHE her everytime she's on screen, even moreso compared to some of the most hated female TV characters," one Redditor wrote. "I mean, they're FIREFIGHTERS ... can't really name a more noble profession yet she makes it her personal mission to destroy these people??? absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, just straight up evil." Another fan of the series on Reddit took issue with the fact that Gail's storyline wasn't even realistic, pointing out that Chicago hasn't closed a fire station in over 25 years and concluding, "The biggest joke of the whole season is that Gail is an outside consultant sent by the State of Illinois to fix a city budget problem. The state has absolutely zero power over the Chicago Fire Department."

Paramedic Jessica "Chili" Chilton (Dora Madison Burge) first appears at the end of Season 3 to a frosty reception from the Firehouse 51 crew, who are still upset over their friend Peter Mills leaving. Though the character departs in the middle of Season 4, she manages to fit some drama into her short-lived tenure, including a fling with co-worker Jimmy Borrelli (Steven R. McQueen) and, tragically, learning that her troubled twin sister (who goes by "Jellybean") has been found dead in Kansas City.

"Chicago Fire" fans, much like the firehouse, didn't warm up to Chili, ranting about the character years after she left the show. "She was incompetent. Always angry. Always emotional. She had a drinking problem. Took it out on all those that tried to help her. I wish Boden fired her sooner. Especially after she gave this woman morphine making her heart stop and go into cardiac arrest and then acted like it was ok. I hate her so much. I still do 9 seasons after she was fired from 51," one Reddit viewer wrote. Though some fans defended Chili for experiencing grief over her sister's passing, others criticized the way she acted on the job after that loss. "She had no accountability at all and was so immature. Not great qualities for a medic," another Redditor opined.

One of the most disliked "Chicago Fire" characters is Tommy Welch (Kenny Johnson), a firefighter who appears in Seasons 2 and 3. He is the head of Firehouse 105, where Gabby Dawson attempts to get signed on as a firefighter. However, he dismisses her because she is a woman — a recurring issue for Firehouse 105, where another woman quits after two weeks because of the atmosphere. Tommy doubles down on his sexist views when Matt Casey speaks to him, asking if Gabby can cook and clean. His work at Firehouse 105 ends when he is stripped of his command after ordering his fire truck to race Casey's to the scene of a call, resulting in the two trucks crashing.

Tommy was named one of the biggest villains of "Chicago Fire" by Writer Megan Lasher of NBC, writing that he was "an unforgettable character who wreaked havoc on the CFD." Viewers agreed, with one Reddit comment saying, "Welch should've been straight-up fired after his truck-crashing and lying incident came to light. It makes for interesting tv, in some ways, but come on!" Another wrote, "Welch is a sexist pig. P****d off because he had one bad experience."