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Why Emily Choi From Chicago Med Looks So Familiar

The NBC drama "Chicago Med" — part of the popular "One Chicago" franchise alongside "Chicago Fire" and "Chicago P.D." — follows the personal and professional lives of the doctors and nurses who work in the emergency department of the fictional Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. The series has an ensemble cast, focusing on a slew of various characters — and with nearly a decade of seasons under its belt, the show has seen its fair share of cast and character switch-ups. Some of the major players include emergency medicine doctor Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss), emergency room chief resident Ethan Choi (Brian Tee), chief of services Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson), and chief charge nurse Maggie Lockwood (Marlyne Barrett).

Another supporting character is Emily Choi (Arden Cho), the sister of Dr. Ethan Choi with a wildly different personality. After struggling with drugs and alcohol, Emily eventually begins the Alcoholics Anonymous program to get her life back on track. It's at an AA meeting where she meets a much older man named Bernard Kim (C. S. Lee). She then gets pregnant with his child, and when she gives birth to a baby boy, she names him Vincent after her and Ethan's late grandfather. Over the course of Emily's character arc, Cho appeared in 17 total episodes of "Chicago Med” from 2018 to 2019 (via IMDb).

If Emily Choi seemed a bit familiar-looking to you while you were watching her on "Chicago Med," it might be that you recognize Cho from some of her other notable roles.

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Cho played Kira on Teen Wolf

The popular teen drama series "Teen Wolf" ran on MTV for six seasons from 2011 to 2017 and has a follow-up movie slated for release soon. The series follows high school student Scott McCall (Tyler Posey), who becomes a werewolf after he is bitten by an alpha werewolf. He then must balance his new abilities — and his responsibility to protect the town from various supernatural threats — with his everyday high school life. Alongside Posey's Scott, the series features an ensemble cast with a slew of characters playing into the plot.

Arden Cho comes into the mix in Season 3, during which she was a recurring character, before being upgraded to a main cast member for Seasons 4 and 5. Cho plays Kira Yukimura, who moves to town just as various monsters from Japanese mythology are invading the lives of her classmate. Kira then finds out that she is a thunder kitsune, meaning that she has special swordsmanship abilities as well as electrical powers. However, her character was abruptly written off the show beginning in Season 6, which Cho admitted to The Cut was a major shock.

Cho has said she enjoyed her time on "Teen Wolf," such as when she spoke to Complex in January 2014. However, she opted not to return for the "Teen Wolf" movie because of unequal pay — she confirmed to The Cut in May 2022 that she was offered a significantly smaller salary than her white co-stars after Deadline broke the story on the pay disparity. Cho explained, "I wasn't saying 'no' necessarily for me or because I was angry. I was saying 'no' because I hope that there will be more equality in the future."

Cho got musical in the film Stuck

In 2017, Arden Cho had a notable film appearance with the musical movie "Stuck," which was directed by Michael Berry and co-starred "Breaking Bad" actor Giancarlo Esposito. The film follows a group of strangers whose lives intertwine when they all get stuck on a stalled subway train in New York City. While stuck, the strangers share their life stories: At times, things get heated, but at other times, they find themselves connecting with one another. Cho plays a character named Alicia, who is a ballet instructor. Alicia's arc also involves harassment, as another character, Caleb (Gerard Canonico), stalks her, takes pictures of her without her consent, and persistently asks her out despite her firmly saying no each time (via RogerEbert.com).

In an interview with WhatTheHellDidSheSay, Cho discussed what it was like to bring a story that deals with such an important topic to life on screen. Cho said, "It's interesting watching it come all together and to see the story be told because it's very important. It's an important message for women, and it is something that is so current right now. It makes me feel great to know that I can make a part in, hopefully, having our voices be heard."

Cho turned to action in the series Miss 2059

After "Stuck," Arden Cho gave viewers a look at her versatility in a whole new genre. From 2017 to 2019, she appeared in 11 episodes of the series "Miss 2059," which aired on Go90 (a former internet television service) for two seasons. The show is set in the year 2059 and follows beauty queen Victoria Young (Anna Akana), who has grown tired of living in the shadow of her ministry hero sister, Arden (Cho). But Victoria's world is thrown upside down when she is mistaken for Arden and beamed into space to represent Earth in a galactic tournament that may affect the entire fate of the world. Cho took over the role of Arden for Season 2, replacing Nikki Soohoo.

At the time of filming, Cho appeared in a video for her YouTube channel that depicts a day in the life of the actors on set, in which she can be seen memorizing her lines and having fun in between takes. Joking about her action-type role in the series, Cho quipped, "The cool thing about acting is you get to hit people with a lead pipe." Laughing, she then added, "Except it's not a lead pipe, it's actually rubber."

Cho starred in the short-lived Partner Track

Most recently, Arden Cho landed her first starring role in the legal romantic drama "Partner Track," which premiered in August 2022 on Netflix. The series follows mergers and acquisitions lawyer Ingrid Yun (Cho) as she tries to land a promotion to partner at her law firm while juggling her tangled romantic life. Netflix released all 10 episodes at once, leaving fans with a cliffhanger, but it seems a resolution is not meant to be; the series has since been canceled after only the first season (via Deadline).

Despite "Partner Track" becoming a short-lived show, Cho has been outspoken about how much she enjoyed making it. Cho told The Cut what it meant for her to land this leading role. "[Being the lead is] something I never imagined would happen in my career," she said.

Working on "Partner Track" was also Cho's first time working with a female — and Asian American — showrunner, Georgia Lee. Together, they decided to make Ingrid Korean American to reflect Cho's own heritage (in the book that the show is based on, Ingrid is Chinese American). Speaking about the book character, Cho said, "There are so many things I relate to with Ingrid. Not because she's Chinese but because she's Asian American. I'm Korean American, but in reality, I'm Asian American also."

Cho similarly told Collider how meaningful it was for her to be able to relate to a character in terms of sharing an Asian American identity. "[The show is] a dream come true ... I read the pilot and was just blown away. How cool is it to see a whip-smart, fierce, incredible woman that happens to be Asian American? I'm like, 'Ooh, I fit that.'"