chicago med season 12

Israeli actress cast in Chicago Med

Shani Atias will guest-star in the new season as a patient with meningitis, the same disease that ended her IDF service and nearly took her life

Gila Isaacson

OCT 4, 2026 16:32

2 min read

Israeli actress Shani Atias has landed a guest role in the new season of the American medical drama "Chicago Med," playing a patient with the same illness that cut short her own army service.

Atias will play Violet, a woman who arrives at the hospital in life-threatening condition, sedated and unconscious, as the medical team suspects she has meningitis. The casting was first reported by Israeli entertainment journalist Guy Pines. The show's twelfth season premieres on NBC on October 7.

For Atias, the storyline is close to home. She was discharged from the IDF after contracting meningitis, about six months into a squad commanders' course and two weeks before it ended.

She has spoken about how hard she fought to serve at all. The army did not initially want to draft her because of an immune system problem that can lead to meningitis, an illness that had already struck her sister, the actress Moran Atias, and her brother before their own service. She enlisted anyway through an exceptional track. In an interview with Ynet earlier this year, she described being an outstanding soldier until, near the end of the course, the illness hit.

Atias, 34, was born in Haifa and has spent more than a decade building a career in Hollywood. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Tom Shalom, and their two children. Her American television credits include "Shameless," "NCIS: New Orleans," "CSI: Cyber" and "NCIS: Los Angeles."