Chicago Fire’s Miranda Rae Mayo celebrates her birthday

Chicago Fire star Miranda Rae Mayo celebrates her birthday today, so we’re celebrating her and her character, tough as nails firefighter Stella Kidd.

Today we’re saying happy birthday to Chicago Fire‘s own Miranda Rae Mayo, who’s had another busy year portraying Stella Kidd.

Chicago Fire season 6 threw a lot at Stella, most of it related to her simmering relationship with Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney).

Stella was temporarily transferred out of Firehouse 51 due to a ploy from Severide’s obsessive one-night stand Hope Jacquinot (Eloise Mumford), met Severide’s mom Jennifer Sheridan (Kim Delaney), and sparred a little with Severide’s ex-girlfriend Renee Royce (Sarah Shahi).

She did attempt a relationship with Hazmat officer Zach (Daniel di Tomasso), but after Stella took a bullet to the radio, this was the season that Stellaride finally became a thing for more than a few moments.

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And there was much rejoicing, because Miranda Rae Mayo is an actress who deserves more screen time and more of a chance to explore Stella’s character. Not only in her relationship with Severide, but just as an individual.

Stella has so many different sides to her that it’s been fun to watch this past year as she tried to sort herself out. She obviously was in love with Severide, but attempted to navigate dating Zach—and did a pretty bad job of it, but she really tried.

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She had a heroic rescue in the field, which was great, and then went completely in the other direction when she found herself stuck working in a whole other department.

Stella’s world has been kind of unbalanced at several different points throughout the year, and that’s given Miranda a few different things to play—whether it’s longing, confusion, anger or even some funny beats here and there. She’s incredibly versatile, and always reliable.

Going into Chicago Fire season 7 everything would seem to be great for Stella, now that she’s got her relationship on steady ground and her career moving full speed ahead. But that could also be a great opportunity for Miranda.

Now that the one thing the show’s been working her toward finally happened, where does Stella Kidd go from here? Could we get the chance to explore more of her backstory that Miranda was so great at digging into last season? Maybe her career will continue to advance.

But whatever she’s handed, Miranda is going to do an excellent job with it, as she’s proven herself to be an invaluable part of Firehouse 51. Happy birthday, Miranda!

Join us in wishing Miranda Rae Mayo a happy birthday in the comments and on Twitter! Then catch her as Stella Kidd when Chicago Fire returns Sept. 26 on NBC.

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