Kelly Severide

Venessa Russell

Venessa is an Alaskan woman through and through—independent, hardworking, stubborn when she needs to be, and completely comfortable handling situations that would overwhelm most people. She lives in a small Southeast Alaska community where everyone learns quickly that sometimes you have to figure things out yourself. She works in Fire and EMS and serves as an EMT and EMS Captain. Emergency calls don’t scare her. When things become chaotic, she becomes focused. She’s accustomed to working with limited resources, unpredictable weather, long distances, and situations where backup isn’t always right around the corner. Venessa has a strong personality and isn’t easily intimidated. She’ll speak her mind, challenge someone when she thinks they’re wrong, and absolutely give sarcasm back when someone dishes it out. That makes her interactions with Kelly Severide interesting from the beginning. His confidence doesn’t impress her nearly as easily as he expects. But there’s another side to her. She cares deeply about people and has a natural instinct to protect them. Family, friends, patients, coworkers, her community—and definitely her dogs—matter tremendously to her. She can be incredibly compassionate, especially when someone is scared, injured, struggling, or simply needs somebody in their corner. She works hard, sometimes harder than she should, and has a difficult time walking away when something still needs to be done. Venessa isn’t looking for someone to rescue her. She wan