Lisseth Chavez

Lisseth Chavez (born May 25, 1989^[1]) is an American actress known for her roles in Chicago P.D., The Rookie, and The Fosters. Chavez appeared as Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz in the sixth and seventh seasons of the CW superhero series Legends of Tomorrow.

Lisseth Chavez
Born	(1989-05-25) May 25, 1989 (age 36)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2009–present
Known for	The Fosters Chicago P.D. DC's Legends of Tomorrow The Rookie

Early life

Chavez is of Salvadoran heritage.^[2] She was born on May 25, 1989.^[1]

Career

Chavez worked as a model early in her career.^[3] She first appeared to TV audiences in 2009's reality beauty contest, True Beauty. She acted professionally for the first time in an episode of The Baby (2011). Chavez has appeared in individual episodes of Southland, Shameless, Lucifer, Rizzoli & Isles, and others. She started to garner more significant roles starting in 2016 with her work on The Night Shift, followed by a featured character run on The Fosters.^[4][2] She played characters with multiple episode-arcs on Station 19 and The OA in 2019.^[4]

Chavez lead role has grown to include her playing rookie officer Vanessa Rojas on NBC's "Chicago" franchise shows (Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, and Chicago Fire), a role originally designed to create long-term romantic tension with character Kevin Atwater, initiated in season seven of the series, but cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5][6] The character arc ended there, as it was announced during the break that Chavez could not return to complete her character's story-line. This was due to the fact the character "...never entirely clicked with fans or the producers."^[7][8] The timing of the change, however, allowed Chavez to take on the new role of a tech-geek with a tragic past, Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz, in The CW's Legends of Tomorrow sixth season.^[5][9] In the episode "The Fixed Point" (2022), Cruz comes out as asexual;^[10][11] she is the first Arrowverse character to do so.^[12]

Then starting in 2022 she began appearing on ABC police procedural drama The Rookie in its 5th season in a recurring role then being promoted to the main cast as Officer Celina Juarez. ^[13]

Awards and recognition

In 2020, the Imagen Awards, referred to by the industry as the "Latino Golden Globes," nominated Chavez in the 'Best Supporting Actress: Television' category for her work on Chicago P.D.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	BFFs	Bella	Short film
2021	Terror Eyes	Rebecca	Aka Voyeur

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	True Beauty	Herself
2011	The Baby	Maritza	Episode: "The Interviews"
2013	Southland	Carmen Martinez	Episode: "Bleed Out"
2015	The Adversaries	Cindy	TV film
	Shameless	Marita	Episode: "Crazy Love"
	The Night Shift	Ana	Episode: "Fog of War"
2016	Rush Hour	clerk	Episode: "Badass Cop"
	Lucifer	Nikki	Episode: "A Priest Walks Into a Bar"
	Murder in the First	Skylar Jennings	3 episodes
	Rizzoli & Isles	Carmen	Episode: "Dangerous Curve Ahead"
2017	Grey's Anatomy	Kate Endris	Episode: "Civil War"
	One Day at a Time	Young Lydia	Episode: "A Snowman's Tale"
	One of Us	Haley Cooper	TV film
	S.W.A.T.	Ariana Acosta	Episode: "Fences"
2017–2018	The Fosters	Ximena Sinfuego	Recurring role; 18 episodes
2018	Get Christie Love	Val	TV film
2019	Station 19	Kathleen "Kat" Noonan	2 episodes
	The OA	Carmen
	Chicago Fire	Officer Vanessa Rojas	Episode: "Infection, pt. 1"
	Chicago Med		Episode: "Infection, pt. 2"
2019−2020	Chicago P.D.		Main role; 19 episodes
2021–2022	Legends of Tomorrow	Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz[5]	Main role; Seasons 6–7
2022−present	The Rookie	Officer Celina Juarez	Recurring role; Season 5; Main role; Season 6-present