Monica Raymund

Monica Raymund (born 26 July 1986) is an American actress and television director, best known for her roles in Lie to Me (2009–2011), Chicago Fire (2012–2019) and Hightown (2020–2024). She was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, the daughter of Steve Raymund, a former chief executive of the Clearwater-based technology company Tech Data, and Sonia Lara, who was born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Her mother co-founded the Soulful Arts Dance Academy in St. Petersburg, while her paternal grandfather, Edward C. Raymund, founded Tech Data in 1974. The family therefore had longstanding connections to the Tampa Bay area, where Raymund spent her childhood.

Raymund developed an interest in performing at an early age, beginning piano lessons when she was five before becoming involved in singing, dancing and musical theatre. She attended Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, graduating in 2004, and participated in the Broadway Theatre Project in Tampa, a summer training programme for young performers. She also attended performing arts programmes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After high school, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Juilliard School, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2008. During her final years in New York, she began auditioning for professional television roles, making an early appearance in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2008).

Her first major television role came shortly after graduation when she was cast as Maria “Ria” Torres in the Fox crime drama Lie to Me (2009–2011), starring Tim Roth. The series follows a team of deception experts based in Washington, D.C., although filming took place predominantly in Los Angeles. Numerous locations around Southern California stood in for the American capital, while establishing shots of Washington landmarks helped maintain the fictional setting. Raymund subsequently joined The Good Wife (2009–2016) as assistant state’s attorney Dana Lodge, appearing during its third season. Although the legal drama takes place in Chicago, the production was primarily based in New York City, with studio interiors constructed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

In 2012, Raymund moved into her best-known role as Gabriela “Gabby” Dawson in NBC’s Chicago Fire. Unlike The Good Wife, the series was filmed in the city where its story takes place, making extensive use of Chicago streets, neighbourhoods and actual fire department facilities. The exterior of the fictional Firehouse 51 is the real Engine 18 fire station at 1360 South Blue Island Avenue, while its principal interior sets were built at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios. Another important location was Lottie’s Pub at 1925 West Cortland Street in Bucktown, which portrayed Molly’s, the neighbourhood bar partly owned by Dawson and her fellow firefighters in the series. Early bar scenes were filmed inside the real establishment before the production constructed a replica at Cinespace. The series also used the Chicago Fire Academy at 558 West De Koven Street, a historically significant location associated with the beginning of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Raymund remained a regular cast member through the sixth season and subsequently returned for guest appearances.

After leaving Chicago Fire, Raymund took the leading role in the Starz crime drama Hightown (2020–2024), playing Jackie Quiñones, a National Marine Fisheries Service agent living in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The series was closely associated with Cape Cod, and its first season incorporated real locations around Provincetown, including MacMillan Pier, Provincetown Inn and the West End rotary. Commercial Street was also used for a sequence recreating the town’s Carnival celebrations. Raymund had never visited Provincetown before the production and later spoke about the contrast between its busy tourist season and its quieter winter atmosphere. However, much of the first season was filmed outside Massachusetts, particularly in Freeport on Long Island, New York, where streets and waterfront locations substituted for Cape Cod. From the second season onwards, production moved largely to Wilmington, North Carolina. Among the locations used there were downtown Wilmington streets and The Harp, an Irish pub on South Third Street, where bar scenes were filmed.

Raymund also appeared in William Friedkin’s final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), playing Lieutenant Commander Katherine Challee opposite Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Clarke. The courtroom drama takes place within the United States Navy, with a historic naval building on Treasure Island in San Francisco used for an exterior establishing shot. Most of the film, however, unfolds within the courtroom rather than aboard a ship. In 2025, Raymund appeared as police officer Maria Delgado in On Call, a crime series set and filmed in Long Beach, California, using the city’s streets and residential areas for its police patrol sequences.

Alongside acting, Raymund has developed a substantial career as a television director. She participated in NBC’s Female Forward directing programme and made her episodic directing debut with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2018. She subsequently directed episodes of FBI, Law & Order: Organized Crime, The Sinner and Hightown, including episodes filmed during the latter series’ production in North Carolina. Her later directing work included Dexter: Original Sin (2024–2025), which recreated 1990s Miami using locations in both Florida and Southern California. She also directed four episodes of Dexter: Resurrection (2025), which moved the franchise’s setting to New York City and was filmed extensively in the city and its surrounding area. Her work as both an actress and director has consequently involved television productions based in several of America’s principal filming centres, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and the southeastern United States.

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