Monica Raymund's First Major TV Role Was On Tim Roth's Fox Crime Drama
Before playing head paramedic Gabby Dawson in NBC's "Chicago Fire," Monica Raymund detected lies with ease in Tim Roth's 2009 crime drama "Lie to Me." The compelling procedural followed Dr. Cal Lightman (Roth) and his team of deception experts as they found savvy ways to solve puzzling cases.
The series went on for three seasons at Fox and became Raymund's first major acting job on TV. "'Lie To Me' was really difficult because I was learning on the fly and was still finding my footing. I had no idea how to act in front of a camera, so I was constantly adjusting to each note and trying to retain all the improvements and failures," she told My Entertainment World in 2015.
In "Lie To Me," Roth's Lightman is rough around the edges, but the best clinical psychologist there is when it comes to cracking cases. His relationship with Ria Torres (Raymund) is tense at first because she is a natural on the job but lacks proper training, but Lightman comes to the understanding that her instincts are a valuable asset to the team. "I think Lightman needs Torres in a way that he maybe wasn't aware of," Raymund told IGN ahead of Season 2's release.
Monica Raymund continued her TV career after Lie to Me
"Lie to Me" was canceled by Fox in 2011. Since then, "Lie to Me" has gained a cult following through streaming with fans expressing interest in a reboot. What set the procedural apart from other network titles of the time was that it didn't take a forensic approach to criminal investigations.
Cal Lightman and his team would determine whether a suspect should be considered guilty based on micro-expressions, body language, and intense psychological evaluations. "It's the only show on television where the ... audience feels like, on some level, they might absorb the skill that Lightman has and be able to use it in their daily life, on their boss or wife or whomever," executive producer David Graziano told TVLine back in 2011.
After starring in the Fox series, Monica Raymund joined "The Good Wife" as Assistant State's Attorney Dana Lodge, a recurring character in Season 3. The actor later played Gabby for six seasons in the "Chicago Fire" main cast.
Since Raymund left "Chicago Fire" in 2018, she went on to lead a Cape Cod crime drama titled "Hightown." In the Starz program, she played Jackie Quiñones, a woman struggling to remain sober while solving a murder case.