Who Does Carter Shimp Play On Chicago PD & Chicago Med?
For many One Chicago fans, a major part of the appeal of NBC's sprawling procedural franchise is how each and every one of the shows exists in the same universe. With major connections between characters on different series and regular crossover events between shows, One Chicago boasts an impressive level of interconnectivity and continuity. That consistency is what makes a situation like that of actor Carter Shimp noteworthy, as the actor has guest starred on both "Chicago PD" and "Chicago Med" as two completely different characters.
Shimp made his entrance into the One Chicago franchise with the Season 5 premiere of "Chicago Med." In the episode, titled "Never Going Back to Normal," Shimp portrays a teenage boy named Cameron Geddes who gets admitted to the hospital for some worrying behavioral patterns. Oliver Platt's Dr. Daniel Charles correctly ascertains that Cameron is schizophrenic, and helps chart the path for the boy and his grandmother (Kathy Baker) toward treatment.
That's the last fans have seen of Cameron, but Shimp himself wasn't done showing up in One Chicago. Roughly five years after his 2019 "Chicago Med" appearance, the performer went on to guest star on "Chicago PD" as a separate character. In Season 11, Episode 2, (perhaps aptly) titled "Retread," Shimp appears as Zachary "Zaco" Munn, a criminal informant for Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) who gets caught up in a messy undercover scheme. As far as fans know, Zaco has no connection to Cameron beyond having the same likeness.
Other actors have shown up as different characters across One Chicago
While Carter Shimp showing up as two separate characters on "Chicago Med" and "Chicago PD" seems like a rather strange turn for the continuity-heavy franchise, he's far from the only One Chicago actor who has earned this odd distinction. As it happens, a number of other performers from various One Chicago shows have appeared multiple times as different characters, including some of the most well-known actors in the entire franchise.
Brian Tee, who has long held the role of Dr. Ethan Choi on "Chicago Med," actually first appeared on Season 2 of "Chicago PD" as a gangster named Jesse Kong. Similarly, Daniel Kyri made his One Chicago debut on "Chicago Med" as a youthful student named Lane Tucker in 2018 — mere months before he joined the cast of "Chicago Fire" as firefighter Darren Ritter. Then, there's Guy Lockard of "Chicago Med" stardom, who popped up on "Chicago Fire" as a minor character named Lewis roughly a year and a half before his debut as Dr. Dylan Scott. The list goes on.
For a TV universe as expansive and long-running as One Chicago, reusing a few actors is somewhat inevitable. Nonetheless, the existence of these odd doppelgängers remains an intriguing piece of trivia for the franchise.