We all know Taylor Kinney as the heartthrob firefighter in Chicago Fire. But did you know that the 41-year actor has also been in a slew of popular (and not so popular) TV shows and movies throughout his 17-year acting career? We’ve compiled Taylor Kinney’s TV shows and movies, from Chicago Fire and Zero Dark Thirty to The Vampire Diaries. Keep scrolling to learn more.
As one of the original cast members of NBC’s Chicago Fire, Taylor Kinney has portrayed Kelly Severide, the lieutenant of Firehouse 51 and officer in charge of Squad 3, since 2012. His longtime success on the NBC drama propelled the actor to new heights. He permanently moved to Chicago, Illinois, to film Chicago Fire, where he’s lived for over a decade. On the show, Severide – the son of former CFD Captain Benny Severide – is an experienced firefighter and leader of Squad 3 who risks his life to save others every day.
Although he was a ladies’ man in future seasons (read his full relationship history here), Severide changed when he started dating his now-wife Lieutenant Stella Kidd in Season 4. The couple got engaged in Season 9 and were married in Season 10. Unfortunately, their relationship is now in limbo after Taylor Kinney temporarily left Chicago Fire in January 2023 because of personal reasons. We later found out that Kinney will be absent for the remainder of Season 11. (We’ll keep you updated if Taylor Kinney returns to the NBC procedural for Season 12 this fall.)
From 2010 to 2011, Taylor Kinney joined the cast of The CW’s popular teen drama, The Vampire Diaries, in Season 2. He played Mason Lockwood, a werewolf who was the younger brother of Mystic Falls mayor Richard Lockwood. He was impacted by the Lockwood curse, which turns the family into werewolves if they take the life of another. His character was estranged from his family before he returned to his native hometown of Mystic Falls after Richard was murdered. His character had a relationship with Katherine Pierce (Nina Dobrev). He ultimately dies in Season 2, Episode 5, when Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) rips his heart out.
“The Vampire Diaries came up, and I was really interested and read for it. Ever since you’re a kid, you want to play a supernatural character or an action hero, so I jumped at the chance and it happened really quick,” Kinney said in an interview with Collider in October 2010. “I don’t think I’ve had more fun getting into character and looking up history on werewolves or old wolfman films and learning about the pedigree of it. It’s a cult thing right now, so just to be part of pop culture and what’s going on in the mainstream television and film world with this genre is humbling,” the actor also said in the interview.
In the Jessica Chastain-led thriller Zero Dark Thirty, Kinney played Jared, a member of the DEVGRU (United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group). He is the one who finds Osama Bin Laden and helps complete the team’s mission to kill him. He told People in December 2012 that it was amazing to work alongside some of his costars. “I spent two months overseas shooting a film Zero Dark Thirty. The experience was amazing and getting to work with the likes of Katherine Bigelow, Mark Boal and some of the other actors. We shot in Jordan and India, so I was in Jordan for two months,” he said, adding that it was “an amazing experience – I’m at a loss for words.”
One of our favorite roles of Kinney is his character in 2014’s The Other Woman. In the romantic comedy, Kinney played Kate (Leslie Mann)’s brother Phil Hampton, who became romantically involved with Carly (Cameron Diaz). (Kinney even took his mother as his date to The Other Woman premiere on April 21, 2014, in Westwood, California). The film follows three women – Carly, Kate and Amber – who are all romantically involved with the same man named Mark King. As a result, the three women seek their revenge. In the movie, when Carly and Kate follow Mark to the Hamptons, they stay with Kate’s brother, Phil – played by Kinney. His character is instantly attracted to Carly. Throughout the film, they both feel a romantic connection with one another. They eventually moved in together and Carly became pregnant with Phil’s child at the end of the movie.
In 2016, Taylor Kinney starred in the horror/thriller The Forest alongside Natalie Dormer and Eoin Macken. The movie follows a young woman who is searching for her twin sister. Her journey brings her to a ghost-filled stretch of wilderness called the “Suicide Forest.” In the film, Kinney’s character Aiden is a journalist who goes with Sara as she searches for her sister in the Aokigahara forest.
In an interview with Nylon in January 2016, Kinney talked about what it was like taking on this role versus Chicago Fire. “It was very different from the character I play on Chicago Fire, and the medium is similar, but I think in film you get a little more time. Television is more of a writer’s medium and you have some guest directors, and so they direct a role to adapt to the show. In film, it’s more of a director’s medium, and you have a little more creative license,” he described. “As an actor, you get a little more time to play and voice your opinion. Not with every film, but with Jason, if I had an idea, he was all ears. Those are the types of directors I like to work with.”
You might not know that before Chicago Fire, Taylor Kinney starred in another NBC first responder show. Trauma, which ran from September 2009 to April 2010, focused on a group of paramedics in San Francisco, California. Kinney was part of the main cast of Trauma and played Glenn Morrison, an EMT who was brought onto the team after the deadly helicopter crash that killed EMT Terry Banner. His character partners with Banner’s former girlfriend Nancy and forms a close relationship with ER intern Diana Van Dine. NBC cancelled the series after one season after the show got off to a poor start with disappointing ratings and low viewership numbers.
Kinney’s first major acting role was in Fashion House, a nighttime Soap opera that aired from September 2006 to December 2006. Kinney portrayed Luke Gianni, an artist who was Maria’s son, Sophia’s stepson and William’s paternal half-brother. His character did not have a good relationship with his mother, and he is in love with Michelle Miller. After selling House of Gianni, he moved to New York to be with Michelle. The actor recalled working on Fashion House years later in a video interview with Deepest Dream. “We shot, I think, maybe 60 episodes in four months. We’d do these twenty-page days, and everything was block shooting and you had all the scripts, so if you had a scene in your kitchen at a character’s house, you’d shoot it all this way and you’d shoot episode 22, 36, 40, 42… and so you’re rifling through thousands of pages…” the actor said. He recalled that he “made good money, but not a ton.” “I remember it ended and just thinking ‘Okay, alright, I’ve made it!’ I think I spent $90,000 on sushi and then I was broke. And then I started auditioning again.”
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