Who played Brittany Baker on Chicago Fire? Everything you need to know about the cast behind the character
Chicago Fire has been running on NBC since 2012, giving fans an inside look at the intense and dangerous work of firefighters, paramedics, and rescue workers at Firehouse 51 in Chicago. The show covers the sacrifices and challenges faced by first responders. Over the years, Chicago Fire has introduced plenty of memorable characters.
One of those short-lived but unforgettable characters was Brittany Baker, played by Serinda Swan. She appeared in season 3 as the woman who unexpectedly became Kelly Severide’s wife after a whirlwind romance in Las Vegas.
Their relationship in Chicago Fire was fast, passionate, and doomed from the start. Brittany's character had a backstory that created a depth to her short run on the show. She was dealing with personal loss, and her impulsive decision to marry Severide was her way of coping with grief.
Everything you need to know about Serinda Swan from Chicago Fire
Serinda Swan has been working in film and television for over 20 years. She was born in West Vancouver in 1984. Her father was a theater director, and she grew up surrounded by the industry. She got her first role at the age of five in Cousins in 1989. Acting was not something she fully committed to until she got older.
She started out with small roles in TV and film. One of her first breakout moments came when she played Zatanna Zatara in Smallville. The role made her popular with DC fans and helped her land bigger opportunities. She got a lead role in Breakout Kings where she played Erica Reed.
The character was a bounty hunter with a complicated past. The show lasted two seasons and gave her a strong foundation in crime and action-driven series. She followed it up with Graceland where she played Paige Arkin. The character was a deep-cover DEA agent. Both roles required physical performances and put her in fast-paced stories.
In 2017, she joined the Marvel universe and played Medusa in Inhumans. The show was supposed to expand Marvel’s TV lineup but it did not take off and was canceled after one season.
She later got the lead role in Coroner, a Canadian crime drama. She played Jenny Coope, a former ER doctor who became a coroner. The series lasted four seasons and gave her a strong presence in Canadian television.
She has also worked in films like Tron: Legacy, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and Devotion. She also appeared in Reacher season 2 as Karla Dixon, a former military investigator who worked with Jack Reacher. The actress has played different roles over the years but she gravitates toward strong and complex women in crime dramas and action series.
Outside of acting, she has been involved in philanthropy. She has worked with organizations like Friends to Mankind, a group that focuses on tackling social issues. She has also supported efforts to combat human trafficking.
What was Serinda Swan's role in Chicago Fire?
Serinda Swan’s character, Brittany Baker, had one of the shortest but most chaotic arcs in Chicago Fire. Introduced in season 3, she appeared in just four episodes. However, what she lacked in screen time, she made up for in reckless decisions. Her impulsive marriage to Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) was less about love and more about two broken people clinging to anything that numbed their pain.
Brittany’s story in Chicago Fire started in Las Vegas, where she met Severide at a craps table. The connection was instant, but instead of seeing it for what it was—a drunken distraction—they took it as a sign.
Within 24 hours, they got married. She followed Severide back to Chicago and moved in with him, disrupting the already strained dynamic in his shared apartment with Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) and Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund). Firehouse 51 barely had time to react before the cracks in their relationship started to show.
In Chicago Fire, Brittany wasn’t running toward something—she was running away. She was from Tallahassee, Florida, where she worked as a graphic designer, but that life was overshadowed by guilt. Her younger sister Kathleen died in a car accident, and Brittany was behind the wheel. Instead of processing the loss, she ran straight into a marriage with a man who was just as emotionally wrecked.
Severide was spiraling after losing his best friend, Leslie Shay, and rather than dealing with it, he latched onto the first person who could distract him. They fed off each others’ grief, mistaking it for something deeper.
It didn’t take long for the illusion to shatter. In season 3 episode 8, titled Chopper, a helicopter crash sent Firehouse 51 into a high-stakes rescue. When Brittany realized Severide was on the scene, she panicked, running straight to the crash site and tried to push through the barricades.
Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) physically stopped her, but she wasn’t thinking rationally. She bombarded Severide with 37 unanswered text messages, proving she was unraveling.
Their arguments became more frequent and their connection more fragile. The reality of Severide’s job set in, and Brittany, already drowning in unresolved trauma, couldn’t handle the constant fear.
Their marriage, built on avoidance, collapsed just as quickly as it started. In season 3, episode 9, titled, Arrest in Transit, Brittany admitted what they both already knew—she needed to go home. She left Chicago for Florida, taking Severide’s wedding ring with her as a reminder of how fast everything had spun out of control. She was never mentioned again in Chicago Fire.
Chicago Fire, season 13 episode 16, titled In the Rubble, is scheduled to air on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 9/8c on NBC.
