Taylor Kinney and his mother Pamela Heisler
Credit: Getty Images

We all know Taylor Kinney as the handsome firefighter Kelly Severide on NBC’s Chicago Fire. But in the actor’s personal life, who are Taylor Kinney’s parents? Keep reading to learn about his family, including his Dad and Mom, Daniel and Pamela.

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Chicago Fire is NBC’s widely popular firefighter drama series, co-created by Dick Wolf, that follows the lives of firefighters, rescue personnel and paramedics of the Chicago Fire Department’s fictional Firehouse 51. Chicago Fire premiered in 2012 on NBC and has been successful ever since. The show has two spin-offs currently on air — Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med — which are part of Dick Wolf’s One Chicago universe (the fourth spin-off, Chicago Justice, was canceled after one season in 2017). The show was recently renewed for Season 12 for the 2023-2024 year.

Taylor Kinney stars as Kelly Severide, a Lieutenant at Firehouse 51 and the officer in charge of Squad 3. He’s been a mainstay cast member since the show premiered more than a decade ago. In January 2023, Kinney stepped away from Chicago Fire and took “a leave of absence to deal with a personal matter,” Deadline reported at the time. While we initially thought Kinney would only be gone for a few episodes, it turns out that we’re going to have to wait even longer to see the show’s heartthrob. Our sister site, Variety, reported on May 2, 2023, that Taylor Kinney will not return to Season 11 as Kelly Severide, but we didn’t receive any explanation as to why that is or if he’ll be coming back for Season 12.

Taylor Kinney, Ashley Cruger

In his personal life, Kinney is currently dating Ashley Cruger, a model who also made a cameo in the Season 11 premiere of Chicago Fire. The pair were first photographed together in April 2022 on the red carpet of an event in Park City, Utah. They went Instagram official with their relationship in June 2022 and walked their second red carpet together (where they were photographed showing major PDA) a month later. The model confirmed she and Taylor Kinney were still together with a tweet in April 2023. The tweet included a photo of Cruger, Kinney and their friends at a restaurant. “So happy to see you and Taylor out with friends,” a Twitter user commented. Cruger also confirmed she and Kinney were still together later that month with a series of photos on Twitter of them celebrating Easter, which included a shot of them kissing. “Happy Easter,” Cruger captioned the photos.

Kinney was previously engaged to pop singer-songwriter and actress Lady Gaga. They started dating in 2011 after they met on the set of the music video for her song “You and I.” They got engaged on Valentine’s Day 2015 and broke up a year later. Their split came as Gaga was filming her 2018 movie, A Star Is Born in Los Angeles, while Kinney filmed Chicago Fire in Chicago.

Wondering who Taylor Kinney’s parents are? Keep reading to learn more about the actor’s mom and dad.

Who are Taylor Kinney’s parents?

Taylor Kinney and his brother Trent Kinney

Who are Taylor Kinney’s parents? Taylor Kinney’s father is Daniel Kinney, a career banker, and his mother is Pamela Heisler, a dental hygienist. His father passed away suddenly on October 26, 2021, at the age of 71, according to his father’s obituary on Lancaster Online. Daniel previously served as the Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending at Susquehanna Bank, and also worked at Fulton Bank, Hamilton Bank and Farmers First Bank. The obituary also noted that Daniel was a competitive golfer and was a founding and past board member of Bent Creek Country Club.

His parents divorced when Kinney and his brothers (Adam Kinney, Trent Kinney and Ryan Kinney) were young. After they were separated, it’s reported that they moved to Neffsville, Pennsylvania, with their mother. His brother, Ryan, passed away on September 13, 2008, and the cause of death was not made public. His father also remarried after his divorce to Bevan (Connett) Kinney.

Taylor attended college at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, then moved to Hawaii where he worked as a carpenter before starting his acting career, according to HollywoodLife. Currently, his brother Trent is the Managing Director of Top Stack’s Information Technology Division. His other brother, Adam, is a Senior Enterprise Solution Team Lead at Comcast Business, where he’s worked for more than nine years, according to his LinkedIn page.

Taylor Kinney and his mother Pamela Heisler

His mother was Taylor’s date to the The Other Woman premiere on April 21, 2014, in Westwood, California, where they were photographed on the red carpet together. In the film, Kinney played Kate (Leslie Mann)’s brother Phil Hampton, who became romantically involved with Carly (Cameron Diaz).

Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

For more on Chicago Fire, check out our photo gallery of the most shocking deaths on the show that we’re still not over.