Contains spoilers for “Chicago Med” Season 11, Episode 6 — “The Story of Us”
The Goodwin family was rocked by patriarch Bert’s (Gregory Alan Williams) Alzheimer’s diagnosis in “Chicago Med,” but things got even more tragic when Bert suffered a likely-fatal head injury in long-term memory care. The family begins to break apart over his DNR order: Eldest brother David (Gbenga Akinnagbe), who has been busy living his life away from the drama and chaos attached to Chicago Gaffney Medical Center, wants surgery performed on Bert to save his life. Younger siblings Tara (Nicolette Robinson) and Michael (Hampton Fluker) are opposed and want to obey his DNR, as does family matriarch Sharon (S. Epatha Merkerson). Eventually, they come to grips with the fact that Bert’s already gone and agree to honor his wishes. Along the way, David blurts out to his brother and sister that he’s only their half-sibling, and Sharon must reveal that he’s the result of a romance she had as a nursing student before she met Bert.
Gbenga Akinnagbe steps into the spotlight as the never-before-seen David in this episode. He’s best known for playing the notoriously ruthless enforcer Chris Partlow in “The Wire,” one of the greatest TV dramas of all time. Second in command to Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector), Chris ultimately ends up serving a life sentence in prison. More recently, he recurred on the FX series “The Old Man” as the morally conflicted Julian Carson across nine episodes, and he played STRATCOM official Major General Steven Kyle in Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix film “A House of Dynamite.” Though Akinnagbe has only been acting since 2005, his resume is stuffed with an amazing array of roles.
Gbenga Akinnagbe is a rising star
Gbenga Akinnagbe hit the ground running; the second role he ever scored was that of the erudite Nigerian immigrant Yinka in the television version of “Barbershop,” where he was a regular for 10 episodes. He recurred for eight episodes as R.N Kelly Slater in “Nurse Jackie” and played gang leader and heroin dealer Jeremiah Bello in “Graceland.” Akinnagbe got to be a good guy when he took on the role of field agent Erik Ritter in “24: Live Another Day.” He also played Pastor Isaiah Easton in seven episodes of “The Good Wife” and wannabe actor Larry Brown across the first two seasons of “The Deuce.”
On the big screen, Akinnagbe has played self-sacrificing passenger Wallace in the 2009 remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123,” Agent Travis in “Independence Day: Resurgence,” and Sergeant Butcher in “Fort Bliss.” He won critical plaudits for his role in 2015’s “Knucklehead,” an independent feature where he plays a man dealing with a mental illness. He was recently cast in the upcoming “The Social Network” sequel “The Social Reckoning.” On top of all that, rapper Wale is his cousin. Akinnagbe told BET: “I used to hold him as a baby! Now he’s this big rapper. I’m very proud of him.” The sentiment must be mutual, as Akinnagbe continues to prove how talented he is, both on the small screen and the big one.