Why Lauren German's Leslie Shay Left Chicago Fire

If there's anything more deadly than a raging inferno it's surely the "Chicago Fire" writers, who are even more merciless than Taylor Sheridan when it comes to offing characters without a second thought. Lauren German's Leslie Shay is just one example. The paramedic was seemingly an indispensable member of the Firehouse 51 team, but was killed off at the end of season 2. Why? Simply because the writers wanted to shock viewers with a big death and Shay fit the bill.

A main character in season 1 and 2, Shay worked with Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund — who left the show after season 6) and lived with Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney). Though she had an often tumultuous relationship with the former, the pair reconciled in the end. Sadly, their working relationship never went much further as season 2 ended with Shay running into a burning building only to be hit in the head with a pipe following a large explosion. Her injuries were fatal and Firehouse 51 memorialized the character by naming an ambulance after the fallen paramedic. As Dawson says during the memorial service, "This house, this family, it's all as strong as it ever was. Stronger even, because I think deep down we think to ourselves, 'Shay would want us to be better. She would want us to lean on each other."

"Chicago Fire" has seen some big cast changes in its 14 seasons on the air, but Shay's departure was one of the most shocking moments and an early indication that fans shouldn't get too comfortable with the main cast. Still, while viewers might well have been upset to see Shay depart, German seemed understanding of the writers' decision to up the stakes of the show at the expense of her character.

"Chicago Fire" showrunner Matthew Olmstead spoke to TVLine about Leslie Shay's death and was asked why such an important character was killed off. "That was the intention," he explained. "Going into it, we knew if we were going to do it, it had to be someone who was going to give us a big impact, as opposed to going for a lesser-known character, which would equate to a pulled punch." Thus, Shay found herself in the firing line. "As opposed to approaching it with timidity, we thought we'd go for it," added Olmstead, who expressed a similar sentiment when he spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the departure of Dora Madison's Jessica Chilton mid-way through season 4. "You can't just save up the big moments and departures and entrances for characters at episode one and episode 22," he said, adding "Unless you follow through on it, no one is going to believe you." In other words, "Chicago Fire" will get rid of beloved characters merely to keep viewers on their toes.

In Shay's case, rather than the timing, it was her standing as a central cast member that seemingly got the writers all excited about killing off the character. As Olmstead went on to tell TVLine, there was a lineup of character photos in the writers' room and he and the team actually went down the line trying to decide who to kill off. "We went down, one by one," he explained, adding, "You're having to weigh the pros and cons of each one. Some we moved off in two seconds, said that wasn't going to happen. Others we debated, but we gave everybody a day in court. We came back to Shay because it affected the most people."

Lauren German certainly wasn't one of those actors who asked to be killed off. Rather, the writers were going to kill off somebody and Leslie Shay happened to be the ideal candidate. They maintained a similarly merciless approach as the show went on, too. Soon after, Charlie Barnett's Peter Mills left "Chicago Fire" and the series would lose many more characters as it went on, many of which experienced similarly tragic events to Shay.

Thankfully German took the whole thing well. As Matthew Olmstead explained to TVLine, the actor was nothing but gracious when she learned she was leaving "Chicago Fire." "There was some discussion that this might be happening," said the showrunner, "and she was very professional about it. She joked that she wasn't going to miss the Chicago winters. She's a California girl. So it was nice to know she was able to joke about it a little bit." Olmstead went on to say that he and the producers were surprised by how she took the news:

"My experience, having done this a couple times, is you're expecting the worst and then you're relieved [by] the professionalism and the graciousness of the actor. They almost know that you're feeling worse than they are. It sucks, but it's a job and a craft. This is what happens sometimes. You mourn it and move on."

German immediately found her footing in the aftermath of her brief "Chicago Fire" tenure, playig Chloe Decker on "Lucifer" between 2016 and 2021, which represented the biggest role of her career. Though she hasn't appeared in anything since, she has been producing artwork and in 2023 partnered with Children's Hospital Los Angeles to raise money through the sale of t-shirts featuring her paintings.