Chicago Med is saying goodbye to another long-serving cast member.
News broke Wednesday that Brian Tee, who has played Ethan Choi since the series premiere in 2015, will leave the show with Chicago Med Season 8 Episode 8, airing December 7.
“Playing Dr. Ethan Choi on Chicago Med has been such a gift and a blessing,” Tee told Deadline of the exit.
“I am forever grateful to our fans and my colleagues both in front of and behind the camera as I embark on a new journey.”
“I am forever indebted to Dick Wolfe, NBC, and Universal Television for choosing me.”
“I think the fans are going to absolutely love it,” Tee said.
“It’s going to bring a little bit of the new Ethan and a little bit of the old. Know that Episode 9 is going to be an amazing one.”
While episode 9 of the seasons marks the big goodbye on-screen for Choi, the actor will return later in the season as the director.
The decision to exit was Tee’s, Deadline reports, revealing that he wants to spend some more time with his family.
The actor previously stepped away from the show last season temporarily to shoot the Amazon original series Expats from Lulu Wang.
“Lulu Wang is a genius. She created a writers’ room that consisted of all Asian American women to tell this story, and her directing is so incredible,” Tee told Deadline.
“It felt like we were doing a six-and-a-half-hour movie because of the talent that she brings. Working on Expats was a complete shift from Chicago Med, obviously with the story, but then also the nuances of what we were trying to convey.”
“I was also completely enamored to work opposite the legendary Nicole Kidman; going toe-toe with someone of that caliber as an artist was a beautiful thing. It helped me fulfill certain things within myself that I knew I could and that I wanted to.”
Tee’s exit comes following the exit of Guy Lockard, who played ED pediatrician Dr. Dylan Scott.
The One Chicago universe has already been rocked with big exits this season, including Jesse Soffer, who departed PD as Jay Halstead, and Jimmy Nicholas on Chicago Fire.
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
