Why Anna From Chicago Med Looks So Familiar
"Chicago Med" may ostensibly be about a bunch of hospital staffers carrying out their jobs and treating patients, but that doesn't mean the show is afraid to delve into the personal and family lives of its characters on many occasions. That's certainly true for Oliver Platt's Dr. Daniel Charles. Viewers often get a front-row seat to Charles' romantic pursuits, his struggles involving his past marriages, and the tribulations he faces as the semi-estranged father of two daughters.
As "Chicago Med" goes on, subsequent seasons start to feature Charles' younger daughter Anna in a recurring capacity. With the girl having grown up under the custody of her mother for many years, she and her dad don't exactly get off on the right foot when she returns to the area as a teenager. Over time, however, the two manage to forge a renewed familial bond. It's heartwarming stuff, to be sure, but some viewers may find themselves caught up on the fact that Anna's actress, Hannah Riley, looks particularly familiar to them. Riley doesn't have a massive list of credits, but she does have some major appearances that fans likely recognize her for, including work on several young adult novel adaptations in recent years.
Paper Towns (2015)
Hannah Riley's first major film credit came as part of the cast for the adaptation of "The Fault in Our Stars" author John Green's romance novel "Paper Towns." Like the book, the film follows the teenage boy Q (Nat Wolff) as he seeks to locate his childhood friend and crush Margo (Cara Delevingne) who has run away from home. Throughout the movie, audiences get flashbacks to the lengthy and complicated history between Q and Margo that's been developing since they were kids, and that's where Riley's role comes in.
In the film, Riley portrays a younger Margo for the flashback sequences. She does a convincing job too, mirroring the scrappy, adventurous spirit that Delevingne's teenage version of the character boasts in her scenes. It certainly helps that the two actresses look like they could be related in real life.
"I had so much fun on set," the young actress said in an interview with Teen Vogue at the time. "I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Cara, but the time we did have was really funny. One of my favorite moments was when we were trying to get a picture and John comes up and says, 'Aww, look at Margo and Little Margo!' Cara was like, 'John, don't creep me out like that!' Everyone laughed."
Allegiant (2016)
It wasn't too long after "Paper Towns" that Hannah Riley snagged her other biggest feature film credit to date. As it happens, this movie is another adaptation of a major young adult novel from the 2010s: "Allegiant," the final film in the sci-fi "Divergent" series. The flick stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James as Tris and Four, two teenagers who wage a war against their corrupt dystopian overlords.
Riley's role in "Allegiant" isn't massive, but it's a fun little part nonetheless. The actress portrays an unnamed young girl who develops a crush on James' Four. While the role was minor, Riley found the experience quite memorable. "It was a really small role, but we were there for a really long time," she told Teen Vogue at the time. "The amazing thing is we were less than five feet away from Theo James and Shailene Woodley. The other little girl and I went over to talk to Shailene. She was very sweet."
Better Things (2016)
Fresh off of appearing in some of the biggest movies in the young adult circles of the 2010s, Hannah Riley moved to the small screen to land a starring role in the acclaimed FX dramedy series "Better Things." The show features "Bob's Burgers" star Pamela Adlon as Sam Fox, an actress and mother working to raise her three young daughters in the harsh landscape of Hollywood.
Riley was a mainstay of the "Better Things" cast throughout its entire run, with the actress portraying the middle child of Sam's three kids, Frankie. As the series goes on, Frankie grows from a little kid to a full-fledged teenager, and her evolving relationship with personal identity and self-expression challenges Sam to re-interrogate many of her own preconceived notions on many an occasion. In the end, their story is one of acceptance and unconditional support — making for one of the more heartwarming narrative threads of the series.
"Better Things" took its final bow in 2022, but Riley still feels a deep kinship with her character. "Frankie's still in there," she told Vanity Fair. "We still hang out. I've gotten so close to her. That's so weird, referring to her as a separate party, but do you know what I mean? Like, she's not going anywhere."