Stranger Things has made Joe Keery a household name, but fans of Netflix’s hit series might be surprised to know that one of Keery’s first big breaks happened to come with a role on Chicago Fire.
Way back in 2015, Keery was a fresh face looking to break through in the industry, and that breakout moment came in 2016 with the release of Stranger Things season 1. However, a year before Stranger Things arrived, Keery passed through the Windy City with a two-episode guest arc in Chicago Fire season 3 in what was only his second acting credit.
Appearing in episodes 16 and 17 of the season, Keery played Emmett Bird, the half-brother of Mouch’s biological daughter, Lizzie Shaffer. In season 3, episode 16, we learned that Mouch had donated sperm when he was younger to make some extra cash, a moment he had forgotten about until he was notified of a security failure at the sperm bank which resulted in confidential files being compromised.
The call from the sperm bank shook Mouch up as he realized that his donation to the lab had resulted in the birth of a child. Shortly after, Mouch received a call from Emmett, who claimed to be his son, which invited him to meet at a nearby diner. Mouch went to meet Emmett at the diner, but ended up leaving before going in when his cold feet got the better of him.
The following episode, Emmett showed up at Firehouse 51 to confront Mouch and revealed that he was not Mouch’s son. Rather, Emmett’s half-sister was Mouch’s birth child, Lizzie, and Emmett had reached out to Mouch to try to sus him out knowing his sister would likely want to meet him.
After starting on the wrong foot, Mouch apologized to Emmett for how he reacted and begged for the chance to get to know his biological daughter. Luckily, Emmett accepted the apology and passed along Lizzie’s information, allowing Mouch to meet and get to know her.
The two-episode guest stint was brief, but it’s fun to think that one of the stars from Netflix’s biggest show got one of his first big breaks on Chicago Fire. It’s one of the things that makes revisiting older episodes so fun, as you never know who you might see pop up in a guest role before they had their breakout moments.
Thankfully, rewatching old episodes is as easy as opening the Peacock app where you'll find every season of Chicago Fire.