Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning medical procedural drama set in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Centre USA stars Adelaide actor Shabana Azeez as Dr Victoria Javadi. Azeez attended St. Aloysius College from 2002 to 2014 and attained a Bachelor of Arts and Media double degree from the University of Adelaide.
After many roles in Australian film and TV including, Utopia, Birdeater and Apple Cider Vinegar, she is now living in LA and already being recognised on the streets in the US for her character on The Pitt.
Azeez plays a brilliant, slightly awkward medical student who went to college at 13. Her parents are specialists in the same hospital and are pressuring her into their specialties. The first episode is her first day at work in the adrenalin-fuelled ER department. Her character is nervous and overwhelmed but she has already given Dr Javadi a calm intelligence and likability. Her character is an influencer with a following on social media as ‘DR J’.
Azeez attended medical boot camp with The Pitt cast for a crash course in medical procedures and jargon.The show boasts consultant doctors and nurses with over 100 years of ER experience, movement co-ordinators and some of the best trauma simulation injuries on TV. Some scenes you’ll be watching through your hands.
Creator and producers
The creator of The Pitt is R Scott Gemmill (ER) and producers, John Wells (ER, West Wing) and Noah Wyle, who played Dr Carter on ER from 1994 to 2005, now plays Dr Robbie. After 23 years playing doctors on TV, Wyle might be quite useful in an emergency.
It’s no surprise that this production team has the experience to successfully blend medical drama with poignant stories from their patients’ lives with a good dollop of politics regarding hospital bureaucracy, under staffing, affordability of medical care, mental health, the ethics of treatment and the aftereffects of Covid.
The Pitt’s style is Documentary Realism: used in The Office, Parks and Recreation and Modern Family. The dialogue is dense, the camera moves with the actors, the ER space and waiting room are claustrophobic and we never see action outside of the hospital. It’s intense but the personalities of staff and patients and their back stories are cleverly revealed. We care about them all.
Awards for The Pitt
The Pitt has been honoured with a string of awards for Best drama series, Direction, Writing, Casting, Acting, Sound Mixing and Production Design.
Season 1 received 13 Emmy nominations, two Golden Globe nominations and 3 Critics Choice nominations. It recently won Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Noah Wyle won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series at 2026 The Actors Awards. And at the Writers Guild Awards: Best Drama Series and Best New Series.
Full list here.
WATCH: HBO Max. Two seasons, 15 episodes each. A third season has been greenlit.
Pitt fans fill the ache between episodes with podcasts and YouTube deep dives.
Season Two episodes are weekly so for Pitt tragics there is an official companion podcast on HBO Max immediately following each episode to help fill the void between episodes. It’s hosted by screenwriter and critic, Hunter Harris and Dr. Alok Patel. Features behind-the-scenes insights, cast/creator interviews and discussions on real-world medical ethics. Also, a YouTube show where an ER Doctor Rates 10 Medical Scenes From “The Pitt” For Realism. Pictured above (left) is Isa Briones who plays Dr Santos. After a run in Hamilton on Broadway she is now playing Connie Francis in the jukebox musical about Bobby Darin Just in Time. Welsh actor Gerran Howell (right) plays a medical student. He was recommended for the part by George Clooney who worked with him on the HULU TV series Catch 22.
Tangents and trivia
From Princess to Pitt
Before The Pitt there was, Lesbian Space Princess. Shabana Azeez is the voice of Saira, in the adult animated Sci-fi comedy film, Lesbian Space Princess.
Written and directed by Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, it is a feature greenlit under the South Australian Film Corporation and Adelaide Film Festival’s Film La: New Voices.
Richard Roxburgh plays the spaceship that transports Saira on a quest away from her planet, Clitopolis which is said to be very hard to find.
The production team worked out of Lot Fourteen and Hough Hobbs and Fernandez (editor) are both graduates of Flinders University’s Creative Arts degrees.
The film has a Rotten tomatoes rating of 98% and the Guardian UK said, ‘an open-hearted and confident performance. A fizzy, welcoming utopia ’
WATCH: NETFLIX
Breaking into Medicine
Taylor Dearden plays Dr Mel King. She is the daughter of actors Brian Breaking Bad Cranston and Robin Dearden.
In 2010, she appeared in the Breaking Bad episode “No Mas” which Cranston directed.