The Chicago Med family is expanding by one more, as Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire, The Old Man) joins the NBC medical drama’s eleventh season in a recurring role. Akinnagbe will play Sharon Goodwin’s (S. Epatha Merkerson) son, David.
Season 11 premiered on Wednesday and will celebrate its milestone 200th episode next week on October 8th at 8 p.m. ET, which will feature the return of Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss). Gehlfuss, who was with the show since its inception, departed in Season 8.
Showrunner Allen MacDonald revealed Akinagbe’s casting during a chat with Deadline this week while discussing what was coming up for Goodwin following the traumatic events of Season 10. He also reflected on what it’s been like working with Queen Bee Merkerson.
“I can’t sing S. Epatha Merkerson’s praises enough. As you say, she’s the queen bee. There’s no doubt about it. She is so talented. For me, it’s a huge honor to get to write for her and to work with her. I really love exploring the more personal side of Goodwin outside the hospital. Partly because she’s a boss, when she’s in that hospital, she doesn’t f**k around,” MacDonald shared.
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He continued, “There’s a lot of pain in her life and in her past, with the stabbing and her breakup with Dr. Dennis Washington in her recent past. I was just so moved by how she handled that. It was always my intention that with the arc with Cassidy, her attacker, that we would, in the finale, see her confront her attacker, and that the attacker would ask for forgiveness.”
Following her breakup, Goodwin found comfort with her ex-husband Bert, the father of her three kids, Michael, Tara and David. Viewers have already met Michael and Tara, played by Hampton Fluker and Nicolette Robinson, respectively.
“I loved so much the idea that she went to the one person who is still home to her, even though he’s her ex-husband. She had children with him, so her closest connection is to him. It’s not spoiling anything to say we will be seeing more of Bert this season,” he said.
“We will also see more of the Goodwin family. We’ve met her children, Michael and Tara, before. We saw Tara last season in Episode 9 when she was having surgery in the spring premiere. And we will also be meeting her son David this year, who we’ve never seen on the show before,” he continued.
Chicago Med is an emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of the city’s state-of-the-art trauma center and into the lives of the courageous doctors, nurses and staff who hold it all together.
The cast also includes Steven Weber, Jessy Schram, Luke Mitchell, Sarah Ramos, Darren Barnet, and Oliver Platt.
Chicago Med is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
Akinnagbe will next be seen in Kathryn Bigelow’s film A House of Dynamite for Netflix, marking his second collaboration with Bigelow, having worked with her previously on Detroit. He recently starred opposite Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow on the FX series The Old Man. Also, Akinnagbe starred on Broadway opposite Jeff Daniels in Aaron Sorkin’s hit Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird.
With an extensive resume in television, his breakthrough role came from David Simon’s HBO series The Wire, which led to Akinnagbe’s series regular role in Simon and George Pelecanos’ HBO series The Deuce. He is repped by IAG, Cognition, Curtis Brown, & Granderson Des Rocher.