Why Dante Torres From Chicago P.D. Looks So Familiar
Season 10 of "Chicago P.D." may have had fans livid after the bizarre exit of Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), but though the veteran detective may be gone, his influence is still felt in the series through the introduction of one particular character. One of the last things Halstead does on the team is take fledgling officer Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) under his wing in the Intelligence Unit, starting at the end of Season 9. While Torres is earnest and goodhearted, it's not long before he finds himself in trouble as his professional duties start bleeding dangerously into his personal life.
But though Torres is definitely an entertaining character to watch, some fans may have the nagging feeling that they know his actor from somewhere else. While Aguilar's acting career thus far has mostly centered around roles in more obscure projects, the performer has previously appeared in a select couple of widely-known properties, including blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos in some of the most popular movies and TV shows of the 2010s.
Three major early career cameos
What do the infamous musical TV series "Glee," the coming-of-age dramedy film "Dope," and the biographical drama "Straight Outta Compton" all have in common with one another? As it happens, they all feature Benjamin Levy Aguilar — in uncredited roles, that is. Indeed, some of the actor's earliest appearances were brief cameos in these notable properties.
Aguilar's appearance on "Glee" came first in 2012, with the actor appearing as an unnamed student at William McKinley High School in the Season 3 finale, titled "Graduation." Three years later, the actor portrayed yet another aspiring academic in "Dope." That same year, Aguilar made one last uncredited appearance, this time as a background protestor in sequences of "Straight Outta Compton." While it might be fun for fans of Aguilar to go back and search for him in these properties, they'll have to keep their eyes glued to the screen to identify him.
Chicago P.D. — again? (2019)
"Chicago P.D." fans may meet Dante Torres for the first time in Season 9, but what if we told you that wasn't actually the first time Benjamin Levy Aguilar showed up on the series? As it turns out, Aguilar's true first appearance came two years earlier in the premiere episode of Season 7, titled "Doubt." However, the character that the actor plays here is a completely different person from Torres.
"Doubt" sees the Chicago Police Department reeling after the murder of their very own officer, Brian Kelton (John C. McGinley), who had just won the city's mayoral race. Of course, the team is hot on the case, with Detective Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Detective Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) setting out to investigate. They quickly uncover a major piece of evidence — the gun used to kill the mayor — which is owned by one Franco Chavaro, played by none other than Aguilar himself. While the clues point to Chavaro being the perpetrator, the conclusion of the episode reveals that he was simply a red herring and someone else entirely had done the dark deed.
While Chavaro and Torres look plenty alike, per their shared actor, it doesn't seem like they have any in-universe connection to one another, similar to another actor who played two characters on "Chicago P.D." It remains to be seen if the procedural ever directly references this odd coincidence, but until then, it remains an amusing easter egg for attentive fans.
Filthy Rich (2020)
Benjamin Levy Aguilar's first starring role on a major TV production came in the form of Fox's short-lived family drama "Filthy Rich" in 2020. The series' premise is a lot like "Knives Out," following various members of the wealthy Monreaux family as they vie against one another for the power and fortune that patriarch Eugene Monreaux (Gerald McRaney) leaves behind following his apparent death.
Aguilar portrays one of those ambitious family members – a professional boxer named Antonio Rivera, who is actually one of Eugene's several illegitimate children. Seeking money to care for his son Jesus, Antonio strives to become a shareholding member of the Monreaux's televangelist network against the wishes of Eugene's widow Margaret (Kim Cattrall). While he's initially content to be paid off, he quickly gets embroiled in his half-siblings' plot for power and the rising stakes even result in his son getting put in the crosshairs.
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (2022)
Alongside Benjamin Levy Aguilar's entrance into the main cast of "Chicago P.D.," 2022 saw the actor join another notable series: Netflix's "The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window." As its verbose title suggests, the show is a parody of popular mystery-thrillers like "The Girl on the Train" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." The series follows Anna Whitaker (Kristen Bell), a divorced painter who is swept up in a bizarre murder mystery that may or may not just be in her head.
Aguilar recurs for several episodes of the series as Rex Bakke, a male stripper who turns out to be a prime suspect in the murder case. However, Anna finds him first, learning that he and the murder victim Lisa (Shelley Hennig) were partners in a money-making scheme. The friction between the pair quickly turns to intimacy, before Rex gets arrested as a suspect. Of course, we're still a ways out from the end of "The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window" at this point, so, surprise, surprise, the male performer is revealed not to be the true culprit. That's twice that Aguilar has played characters wrongly accused of murder, for those keeping track.