EXCLUSIVE: Toya Turner has exited from NBC‘s Chicago P.D., and will not appear as Kiana Cook when the police procedural returns for its 13th season. The reason for her exit is unknown.
Turner released a statement following her exit, saying, “I’m grateful for the time I had bringing Kiana to life. Thank you to everyone who welcomed me so warmly.”
The show is currently casting a new female series regular to play an officer on the ATF Task Force with a military background who is described as a “loose cannon,” sources tell Deadline.
Turner joined the cast in July, making her debut early in Season 12. The character is a former tactical officer demoted to patrol by her supervisor after noting his tendencies to avoid any real work to preserve his pension. She catches the attention of Intelligence after helping catch the killer of their latest addition, Detective Emily Martel. She is later recruited by Voight (Jason Beghe), whom she helped with a case involving teenage girls killing their abusers.
Turner worked closely alongside Detective Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) but was always on hand to assist other colleagues like Officer Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar), even after finding out his dark secret, and Officer Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins). In a recent interview, Squerciati told Deadline she’d like to work more closely with Turner in Season 13.
“I didn’t get a relationship with Tracy [Spiridakos]. I have talked about that in the press. That made me sad. I would love to see a female relationship blossom on this show. I really love Toya [Turner], and she’s a fresh voice on the show. I also feel like [Kim is] a bit of a mentor to Cook, and I’d love to see that grow as well,” Squerciati shared at the end of May while supporting the show at ATX TV Festival.
Kiana’s storyline expanded in episode 9, “Friends and Family,” revealing a complicated past with her family. She reunites with her estranged mother (Marie-Francoise Theodore) at her mansion when Kiana needs to borrow money to help fund a ransom on a case she is working on. The pair is estranged because her mother disapproves of Kiana’s career choice. As a woman of means, she expected her daughter to have a more notable profession.
Turner joined the series following Tracy Spiridakos’s exit as Detective Hailey Upton after eight seasons in the Season 11 finale. Before that, Jesse Lee Soffer said goodbye to the team as Jay Halstead and Hailey’s ex-husband. Over on Chicago Fire, Daniel Kyri and Jake Lockett will not be returning to the firefighter drama when it returns for its 14th season.
Before starring in P.D., Turner appeared in both Chicago Fire and Chicago Med, but as different characters. Her credits also include the Netflix series Warrior Nun, NBC’s New Amsterdam, Netflix’s Easy, and Fox’s The Mick and Empire. Additionally, she was seen in the indie feature Dead Women Walking, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018.
The British American Drama Academy at Oxford University alum also has stage credits including Raisin in the Sun at A Noise Within Theater in Los Angeles as well as Blues For an Alabama Sky at Court Theater in Chicago.
