She may be one of the most fearless officers at the 21st District, but for Marina Squerciati’s child, she’s known as just mom.
Squerciati plays Officer Kim Burgess on Chicago P.D., NBC’s police procedural drama following the personal and professional lives of patrol officers and Intelligence Unit detectives at the Chicago Police Department’s fictional 21st District in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago P.D. — which is created by Dick Wolf, the same mind behind the Law & Order and FBI franchises — is the second show in NBC’s One Chicago franchise, which also includes Chicago Fire and Chicago Med.
Squerciati is one of five remaining original cast members on Chicago P.D., along with Jason Beghe (Sergeant Henry “Hank” Voight); Patrick John Fleuger (Officer Adam Ruzek); LaRoyce Hawkins (Officer Kevin Atwater); and Amy Morton (Sergeant Trudy Platt).
Burgess and Ruzek have been in an on-again, off-again relationship since Season 1 of Chicago P.D. But in real life, Squerciati has been married to her husband for years, and the couple started a family together in 2017. Read on for what we know about how many children Marina Squerciati has, and how her daughter is her mini-me.
How many children does Marina Squerciati have?
Marina Squerciati has one child — a daughter who was born in May 2017 — with her husband, attorney Eli Kay-Oliphant. Squerciati announced she was pregnant with an Instagram post in February 2017. “SURPRISE! It’s been hard to keep the secret, but since @MIMAUSA sent me the COOLEST stroller (& matching bag) in the world, I thought: what better way to tell you all the news?! (Don’t be surprised to see Burgess holding a LOT of file folders in front of her stomach on #ChicagoPD.) #expecting#babyonboard,” she captioned a photo of her baby bump.
Squerciati — who hasn’t revealed her daughter’s name and temporarily left Chicago P.D. to go on maternity leave in 2017 — announced her daughter’s birth in an Instagram post in May 2017. “Please welcome our newest female detective on the #ChicagoPD force! And to all my friends who got me Pampers off my registry…THANK YOU. Um, turns out babies use them. A lot. #newmom #newsquad #babylikeagirl #beautifulmess #newborn #nevergrowup #parenthood #learningcurve #diapersgalore #bumpwatchover #happy,” she captioned a photo of her holding her daughter, who was swaddled in a blanket and wore sunglasses.
Squerciati shared a rare Instagram photo of her and her daughter hiking in matching dresses at the Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Washington, in June 2023. “One last stroll in the forest for these city slickers. We’ll miss you @suncadia! (Next time, I’ll wear better hiking footwear. No need to say anything about it in the comments, friends. I learned my lesson,” she captioned the post. “Anyway, this place is the greatest. #familyvacation #suncadiarestort #suncadiavacationhome #cityslickers.” After the photo, many One Chicago fans took to Squerciati’s comments to note how much the actress and her daughter looked alike. “LITTLE SQUERCIATI LOOKS SO CUTE JUST LIKE HER MOM,” commented Instagram user @lqveburgess. User @richieanthony22 wrote, “She looks like the mommy and u the daughter. Especially way she’s standing. U look clueless and she looks in control with her lil sun glasses.”
Squerciati also posted an Instagram photo of her daughter dressed as Disney Junior’s Mira, the Royal Detective, for Mother’s Day 2023. “Mother’s Day brunch @adalinachicago! I was honored the Disney Princess Mira, Royal Detective, took time away from her mystery-solving adventures to join me for a delicious meal. (Apologies to her sidekicks Mikku and Chikku, apparently #Adalina does not allow mongooses in the diningroom,” she captioned the post, which saw her and her daughter dressed in rainbow- and heart-shaped sunglasses.
According to Hello! magazine, Squerciati and Oliphant married in 2016 and met while they were students at Northwestern University. Oliphant works as an partner at Sparacino PLLC, a commercial litigation law firm based in Washington D.C.
In an interview with Chicago Parent in 2018, Squerciati opened up about how she didn’t feel an immediate “surge of love” when she welcomed her daughter. “I find that people are incredibly positive and happy-go-lucky about their experience, and I feel like that’s not always truthful and it makes other people feel less-than when they don’t have that experience,” she said. “I didn’t have an incredible surge of love; I didn’t have an incredible non-surge of love. I just was like, ‘Oh, this is a new part of my life.’ It was just not there.”
She continued, “It took a couple months, and people were like, ‘Oh you will feel it, you will.’ And I did. And now … I really do absolutely love her and have such joy and so much fun with her. But it took a little bit of time and I’m not ashamed to say that. … [Now] when my kid’s in the room, I’m just gaga.”
She also told the magazine about the lessons she wants her child to learn from her. “I have three adjectives in my head whenever I’m parenting, [but] it’s not like I wake up and am like ‘This is my mantra for the day,'” she said. “I want her to be brave, I want her to be confident and I want her to be kind.”
She continued, “I don’t dress her in pink and frills and stuff like that, but I also want to respect that if that’s what she wants as a woman, she’s allowed to choose that. If she doesn’t want to be a badass, that’s fine too. I just want her to choose and be confident in her choices… I want her to be safe, but I also want her to be brave, and I don’t want to sort of swoop her up in every single instance… Inside I’m pretty uptight, but I really am trying to parent in a more low-key manner.”
Squerciati also told Chicago Parent about how it took a while for her to feel like herself again after giving birth to her daughter. “Because I was fit beforehand, I thought I would just bounce back. I’d be like, ‘I’m fine, I can do it’ [and] get back to the gym. I remember [asking] my doctor, ‘When can I get back in the gym?’ He said six weeks. I was like, ‘Pshaw, what about four?'” she recalled. “And he was like, ‘I don’t recommend it.’ I was like ‘… But can I do it?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I guess so.’ And at four weeks I was like, ‘Oh, hell no!’ I don’t think I went back to the gym until eight months, and I’m only now at nine months feeling like my body’s mine again.”
She continued, “We sort of play down how hard [giving birth] is on the body and how much you need to recoup. We’re such a busy, do-it-all culture that if you can, take the time to sort of be still and heal. I think that’s good. Not even just physically, but emotionally. You don’t have to start being yourself four weeks later. A mom friend of mine encouraged me to go sit in a sauna for 30 minutes, just to have a few minutes, and I was a better mom that day. I worked hard and I needed a few minutes to decompress and I took that. I can’t lie and [say] I didn’t feel a little guilty. But I did it, and it felt good.”
Squerciati also told Chicago Baby Magazine in 2019 about how the experience of motherhood has changed for her as her child becomes older. “I like the job of motherhood more and more as my daughter gets older. I feel like the Instagram model is like: ‘Blessed is every day! And today is the greatest day that God ever gave me with this child!'” she said. “And I just didn’t feel that way. I like my child more now that she’s more interactive, and I found the first year to be quite difficult. [Motherhood] is wonderful and great, but it’s also incredibly hard and boring sometimes. I want to make sure I’m true to that when I’m interviewed because sometimes it’s more popular and more palatable to say: ‘Everything is awesome!’ But it’s not.”
She also told the magazine about what it’s like to balance a full-time role on Chicago P.D. with being a parent. “For me, I never feel guilty when I’m working because I feel like I’m providing for my family. I’m working to pay for my daughter’s education when she’s older, that kind of thing,” she said. “But I do feel guilty when I go to the gym or get a massage — those extras, when I’m not with her, are to say that I don’t love all parts of motherhood, but I still love being a mother. It’s important to me to be able to say honestly that, no, I don’t feel guilty when I’m working.”
She continued of the balance, “I try to stay present in each thing — I’m present at work when I’m at work and I’m present with my daughter when I’m with her… When I’m with my daughter, I’m not taking a peek at my scripts… I’m trying to be present with both to balance things out.”
Chicago P.D. is available to stream on Peacock.
For more One Chicago families, check out our photo gallery below on the Chicago P.D. cast’s children in real life.
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