Before Jesse Spencer was cast in the popular Dick Wolf procedural Chicago Fire, the Australian actor acted in a variety of television shows and films in the U.S. and abroad. His acting career started in his teens with the Australian soap opera Neighbours, then the Aussie actor spent decades on medical and first responder shows. We’ve gathered Jesse Spencer’s TV shows and movies, from Neighbours and House to Uptown Girls.
Jesse Spencer joined Chicago Fire for its premiere season in 2012. He played Captain Matthew Casey, a lieutenant (then captain) at Firehouse 51 and an officer in charge of Truck Company 81. After more than a decade on the show, Spencer announced that he was leaving Chicago Fire in Season 10 in 2021. In October 2021, Spencer opened up to TV Line about why he decided to depart the show after 200 episodes. “I realized I’ve been doing TV for a long time,” he said. “I added it up, and I think this year is my 18th year of network television.”
Thankfully, he’s returned as a guest star a handful of times after his departure – and he has not ruled out returning to the procedural on a full-time basis. In an interview with Deadline in April 2022, when asked if Spencer could be coming back full-time, he responded: “I cannot… answer that question,” Spencer told our sister site. “The potential to come back would be awesome. I’m always open to that but you know, the ball isn’t really in my court. I always told [series co-creator] Derek Haas that if there were episodes that he thought would be appropriate for me to come back, then I’m totally open to that because I want to see the old gang and I love working there. But in terms of me coming back full-time or something, I have no idea.” Spencer’s latest appearance on Chicago Fire was during the Season 11 finale, when he asked his girlfriend (and Firehouse 51 paramedic) Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) to marry him and move to Oregon with him.
Before joining the One Chicago Franchise, Spencer spent eight years on the medical drama, House. For the entire run of the series, he portrayed Dr. Robert Chase, the diagnostic team’s surgeon and intensive care specialist. Although Chase was initially attended to be American, they made Chase an Englishman after Spencer was cast (hear Spencer’s real-life Australian accent here versus his American accent).
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in October 2012, Spencer explained why he wanted to star in Chicago Fire after his many years on House. “It was kind of one that felt like the right fit. [House] was a very cerebral show and it was a really, really really, good show. Chicago Fire was just something different. It’s not cerebral. It’s more of a character-based show with a lot of action,” he said. “After eight years of being an intellectual and spewing out medical terms, it was time to do something in the opposite direction. And running around in [firefighter’s] gear for 14 hours seemed like the right thing to do.”
Spencer made his acting debut in his teens in the Australian soap opera Neighbours. On the show, he played Billy Kennedy from 1994 to 2000. Kennedy, who suffered from dyslexia, was the son of the show’s main characters, Karl Kennedy and Susan Kennedy. In a 1996 interview posted to The Free Library, Spencer revealed that his first audition for Neighbours was unsuccessful. “In 1994 I tried for the role of Brett Stark but they said I was too young. I didn’t give up, though, and the next year I tried for Billy and got lucky,” he said at the time. The actor reprised his role in 2005 to celebrate the show’s 20th anniversary (along with Margot Robbie) and returned in 2022 for the Neighbours series finale.
Although Spencer’s best-known roles were on TV, he has also made appearances in a few films as well, including 2003’s Uptown Girls with Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning. The American-comedy drama focused on Molly Gunn, the 22-year-old daughter of a late rock and roll legend. Spencer played singer Neal Fox, who was introduced to Molly after playing at her birthday party. Although they hit it off, he decides not to be with Molly because of her disordered life, and throughout the film, Molly must navigate their turbulent relationship.
Spencer spoke with Pop Arts Place in 2003 about what attracted him to the role of Neal. “Music’s been a big part of my background, so that definitely jumped out at me. The main thing, though, was the really good script. And my character really jumped out at me. He’s a very driven guy who knows what he wants. That really struck a chord with me.” The role allowed Spencer to do one of the things he loves – singing and playing music. “I’ve always written a lot of songs and played in high school bands, but I’ve also been classically trained. With Uptown Girls, I’ve been part of the process from the very beginning – playing guitars, tweaking the tunes, doing harmonies. It was a good opportunity to really get in front of the microphone and play.”
In 2003, Spencer starred in the 2003 biographical drama, Swimming Upstream. The film depicts the life of Olympic-level Australian swimmer Anthony “Tony” Fingelton (based on Fingelton’s autobiography of the same name). The inspirational life story follows Tony from his painful childhood days with an alcoholic father to his swimming accomplishments later in life. Spencer played Tony and starred in the film alongside famed actors Geoffery Rush and Judy Davis.
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