Marina Squerciati

Marina Squerciati moved from an extensive theater background into features and television in the 2000s and achieved stardom as the tenacious Officer Kim Burgess on "Chicago P.D." (NBC, 2014- ). Born Marina Teresa Squerciati on April 30, 1984 in New York City, she made her screen debut at an early age as a dancer in Emile Ardolino's film version of "The Nutcracker" (1993). Training in theater at Northwestern University and dance at the School of American Ballet preceded her professional stage career, which began at the Williamson Theatre Festival and eventually worked its way back to New York, where she appeared Off-Broadway in "Beauty of the Father" and "Manipulation" before winning critical acclaim as the comic actress Judy Holliday in "Just In Time: The Judy Holliday Story." Squerciati took the show from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to Broadway, where she won the Agnes Moorhead Award for her performance. Her screen acting career began in 2009 with guest turns on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (NBC, 2001- 2011) and "Damages" (FX/The Audience Network, 2007-2012) before making her feature film acting debut in "It's Complicated" in 2009. Squerciati balanced minor roles in indie features like Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha" (2011) with television appearances, most notably as a flirtatious publicist on an eight-episode arc on "Gossip Girl" (The CW, 2007-2012). In 2014, she made her first appearance as ambitious Chicago police officer Kim Burgess on "Chicago Fire" (NBC, 2012- ); the character was later made a regular character on the spinoff series "Chicago P.D.," where critics and audiences alike praised her determination to be taken seriously as a police officer - Burgess was a former flight attendant - and her indignation over being turned down for a promotion to the department's Intelligence unit in favor of her partner (LaRoyce Hawkins).