Dora Madison(I)

Dora Madison was two weeks away from attending college when she landed her breakout role on NBC's Friday Night Lights. Her portrayal of "Becky Sproles," an optimistic pageant girl from a broken home, endeared both critics and fans alike. Dora's tenure on the Emmy-nominated series opened doors for additional recurring arcs on Freeform's The Lying Game, CW's Starcrossed, and Showtime's Dexter.

Soon after, Dora returned to NBC as a guest star on Chicago PD, playing criminal informant "Jelly Bean." Showrunner Matt Olmstead was so impressed with her grounded performance that he cast her in his sister series Chicago Fire as "Jessica 'Chili' Chilton," a series regular role that was written specifically with Dora in mind. Her polarizing performance gripped audiences as they watched Dora's seasoned and troubled paramedic, who longed to find family in Firehouse 51, succumb to alcohol addiction.

After her time on Chicago, Dora next tried her hand at comedy, where she starred in Viceland's first scripted series What Would Diplo Do?. She played "Karen," a sarcastic over-educated personal assistant opposite James Van Der Beek's hyper-realized version of Diplo.

In addition to her extensive television career, Dora has also appeared in numerous feature films, playing an array of diverse characters. She has had the privilege of collaborating with iconic filmmakers Terrence Malick and Richard Linklater, while also making a name for herself in the horror space; a genre that she has been a lifelong super-fan of. Likeminded horror fans will recognize her in Eduardo Sanchez's found-footage Bigfoot film, Exits, the Blumhouse series Into the Dark, a trilogy of features from director Joe Begos (Bliss, VFW, and Christmas Bloody Christmas), as well as the feminist genre festival favorite Alone With You. The physical demands of the horror and action film genres excites Dora and has inspired her love of performing stunt and fight choreography.

Dora took a brief hiatus over the last few years when her daughter was born, but has recently made a return to the big screen in the coming-of-age queer comedy Big Boys, which has already snagged 10 audience awards (and counting) from the 2023 festival season.