Stella Kidd has not been seen on Chicago Fire in recent weeks, leading viewers to wonder about the story behind her absence.
Miranda Rae Mayo has been a mainstay on Chicago Fire since Season 4 as Stella Kidd, a firefighter from Truck 81 who eventually becomes a Lieutenant with the Chicago Fire Department.
However, after Season 12 had several characters make their exit from the story, many were worried about Season 13 setting up departures for other major Chicago Fire players. Included in that bunch was Kidd after Chief Wallace Boden's exit deeply affected her.
What Happened to Stella on Chicago Fire?
Warning - the rest of this article contains spoilers for Season 13, Episode 9 of Chicago Fire.
As the cast of Chicago Fire returned for the second half of Season 13, questions arose about where Miranda Rae Mayo's Stella Kidd was. Notably, she did not make an appearance in the series' first episode of 2025.
Early parts of the episode explained that Kidd was missing due to being on a trip in Maryland with the Girls on Fire program. However, this came at a somewhat inopportune time, as Christian Stoulte's Mouch and David Eigenberg's Hermann were both awaiting the results of their tests to earn promotions.
As they both passed their tests, Taylor Kinney's Kelly Severide also came back into action, which made Kidd's absence more noticeable as he took over other investigations.
Did Stella Leave Chicago Fire?
While Stella's potential departure from Chicago Fire Season 13 has been a topic of discussion since before the season started, she does not seem to be going anywhere.
Speaking with Give Me My Remote, star Miranda Rae Mayo teased "a lot to be excited about" for the rest of the season, indicating she will be around for the action. She even went on to thank both executive producer Dick Wolf for having her on the show and the writers for creating her role:
"It’s looking good this season. There’s a lot to be excited about. And, again, I’m just so grateful, so proud, and fortunate to be on the ride. Thank you forever to [the 'Chicago Fire' writers] for creating Stella, to Dick for having me. Forever grateful to be a part of this crew."
Further discussing the season with TV Line, she reflected on the writers' wishes to have Stella "be in on the action" in upcoming episodes. While she does not know where things are going completely, she is fully on board "being the truck lieutenant:"
"Yeah. I’m really lucky. The writers have shared that they want Stella to, absolutely, be in on the action. and that’s where we love seeing her. But who knows, this could be something that changes over the course of the season. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I love her being the truck lieutenant."
New episodes of Chicago Fire air on NBC on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Peacock.
