Lisseth Chavez


Lisseth Chavez 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.

Early life

Chavez is of Afro-Salvadoran heritage. She was born on May 25, 1989.

Career

Chavez worked as a model early in her career. 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. 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. She played characters with multiple episode-arcs on Station 19 and The OA in 2019.
Chavez lead role has grown to include her playing rookie officer Vanessa Rojas on NBC's "Chicago" franchise shows, 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. 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." 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. In the episode "The Fixed Point", Cruz comes out as asexual; she is the first Arrowverse character to do so.
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.

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.''

Filmography

Film

Television