‘The Pitt’s’ Taylor Dearden on How the Series Expands What Neurodiversity Looks Like On Screen [Interview]

How does it feel to be in the middle of a cultural phenomenon?

“It’s a bit of a whirlwind,” says Taylor Dearden, who stars as Dr. Mel King in the cultural phenomenon in question, the HBO Max series The Pitt.

Medical dramas are a tale as old as television, often the most popular and culture-shaping programs one can watch: St. Elsewhere, Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Med, and, of course, ER, the series that elevated the genre to the level of prestige art. The Pitt is arguably the first medical drama born of the streaming age, escaping the confines of Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service to dominate social media conversations, spawn a bevy of TikTok edits set to Doechii and Taylor Swift, and spur genuine awards buzz for its writing, direction, and, of course, its acting.

For Dearden, The Pitt’s shooting schedule — an endangered species amongst zeitgeist-capturing series — has helped shield her from the chaos. The series aired weekly from January to April, with the first season housing 15 episodes. In an era when the buzziest shows can disappear for years between seasons, only to return with a handful of episodes, The Pitt is expected to return with a sophomore season of 15 episodes in January 2026, a mere nine months after the first season finale.

She said about processing the show’s reception, “It was tough having everything make sense because we were still filming it when it came out. [You’re] hearing some stuff, but then still going to work and having that focus. It’s been kind of wild.”

As wild as the series’s reception and production plans may be, they may pale compared to what the emergency medical staff at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital experience on a given day. The Pitt’s first season follows a single day shift in the emergency room, led by Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the senior attending physician played by Noah Wyle. (Wyle also serves as executive producer and penned two episodes.) Among those working alongside him in “The Pitt” is Dearden’s Dr. King, a medical resident experiencing her first day on that shift. By the time her shift ends with the season, Dr. King is confronted with a dizzying amount of physical trauma, from the painfully awkward to the outright devastating. Her first day culminates in a shocking tragedy: a mass shooting at a nearby music festival that tests the logistical processes of a chronically underfunded hospital and the emotional mettle of its dedicated workers. 

As one could imagine, preparing to bring The Pitt’s ambitions to life is extensive and intense. After being cast, Dearden and the whole cast went through two weeks of boot camp, where they worked with a medical director to learn how to convincingly play doctors, practicing everything from holding medical instruments to performing ultrasounds. They aimed to develop a shorthand that helped the scenes flow naturally, with the doctors on set guiding how scenes were blocked. Dearden described the boot camp as “pivotal” to the cast’s performances.

Dr. King’s experiences amidst the rushing hospital beds, frantic lab tests, and colorful patients are partially informed by her being a neurodivergent physician. She is the latest in a relatively small pool of neurodivergent physicians on television, the most visible and clearly defined being Dr. Shawn Murphy, played by Freddie Highmore, in The Good Doctor. The limited sample of neurodiverse perspectives in medical television, and television overall, has led to an overreliance on harmful stereotypes that fail to recognize the unique skills and perspectives that neurodiverse people have, and how they reflect in their work.

“Especially on the ADHD autism spectrum, there is a way of presenting that seems like [neurodivergent people] have no empathy and they’re kind of robotic, which is weird and not true,” Dearden, who identifies as neurodivergent, explained about neurodiversity in media. “It’s always bugged me, being on that spectrum and being like ‘that’s so not what we’re like, thanks though.’”

Dearden conceived Dr. King as an unmasked version of herself. For autistic people, masking involves suppressing autistic behaviors, either consciously or unconsciously, to help them navigate neurotypical spaces. It was a process that, Dearden shared, may have contributed to some of her anxieties on set. “There’s something about the ‘stiff upper lip’ to get through the day that Mel doesn’t really have. Allowing Mel to come out of me like that was very vulnerable and exhausting in a way that was different. I think that did have a lot to do with the anxiety I let myself feel.”

She also drew from personal experiences as a neurodiverse person to develop Dr. King as a character. One experience she drew from was “constantly being misunderstood” by people around her. She specifically detailed the challenges that come with controlling tone of voice, a symptom that people with ADHD and autism share. “The amount of times I’ve been happy or excited about something and someone yelled back at me, and I’m really lost, and I find out later that I sounded angry. I had no idea. There are a lot of elements of that with Mel, of getting excited about something and then forgetting that other people may not be excited about it.”

One nuance that can get lost in superficial depictions of neurodivergent characters is the disruptive impact of being overwhelmed by certain settings. “It’s so easy to be overwhelmed,” Dearden explained. “And when you’re overwhelmed, you’re only focused on getting yourself right and in a place of calm, and so you may lose track of how you sound to other people. You may lose track of what’s important to other people around you. It’s because you’re overwhelmed, and it’s not this weird, robotic, uncaring thing at all.”

The Pitt depicts how being overwhelmed affects Dr. King and how her shift team supports her. In the penultimate episode of the season, amid the mass shooting aftermath, Dr. King becomes overwhelmed after reuniting a daughter with her mother, who had been separated during the incident. Dr. Robby, who is also struggling with the loss of a patient, finds her outside of the room as she cries and apologizes for losing her composure. Dr. Robby gently tells her to “never apologize” for empathizing with her patients and reaffirms her presence in the ER. “I’m really glad you’re with us,” he says.

“It was a really rewarding scene,” Dearden recalled. “I think Mel gets vulnerable more on her own than letting people see it.” She points to other moments in the series where Dr. King isolates, like spending time with a patient’s dog in the break room. “To have that validation from Dr. Robby was so special because [vulnerability] is not celebrated enough. There are so many times where it’s like Tom Hanks’s line in A League of Their Own, ‘there’s no crying in baseball.’ To have a moment that acknowledges what happened to everyone…I thought it was really special, and it was really fun to do.”

The series also allowed Dearden to play Dr. King’s unique strengths as a neurodiverse doctor. In episode seven, Dr. King and Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) treat Terrence, an autistic patient, for an ankle sprain. When Dr. Langdon struggles to treat Terrence, Dr. King takes over. She immediately identifies how she can make Terrence more comfortable and address his very specific concerns, a departure from Dr. Langdon’s broad-spectrum approach to medicine. 

“It was a way for Mel to get to do what she’s great at, and how easy it is for Mel,” she said about the episode. “There was no thinking of what would be best in this moment. [For her], it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s loud. We’re turning off the lights, that’s pretty easy. And I think seeing that must have been trippy for Langdon. He’s like, ‘Wow, she took control of this situation,’ which is so not Mel until then.”

At the end of the episode, Dr. Langdon shares with Dr. King in the ambulance bay that he learned a lot from Mel’s different approach to treating neurodiverse patients. That episode further solidified what Dearden considers to be the most significant connection that Dr. King has within The Pitt. (It is also a connection that has formed a dedicated fanbase on social media, through TikTok edits, among other fan creations.)

“I always saw that Mel’s been desperately searching for a mentor, and Langdon has always been searching for a mentee,” Dearden said of Dr. Langdon and Dr. King’s bond. “Every time he tries with all the med students that day, no one’s picking up, except for Mel. He’ll try to teach, and no one really cares, and then all of a sudden, Mel’s like, ‘Yes, I’m so ready.’ And I think that’s the start of that relationship.”

Dearden continued, “I don’t know how well Mel would’ve done that whole day if she hadn’t had that encouragement from Doctor Langdon. I really don’t, because it’s so overwhelming. Even in the episode where he was gone, even though she’s still searching for him, it did feel like she’s got more confidence now, and it’s because of that relationship.”

Apart from the responsibilities of presenting a fully fleshed-out neurodivergent character, Dearden was also excited to share Dr. King’s sprightly charm, which has made her a fan favorite, and her own mischievousness. She was surprised many of them made it into the episodes’ final cuts. “I come from improv,” Dearden said. “So I warn a lot of directors to pull me back if I get too big. And there were so many times I would try to break someone in the scene. Sometimes it would be a ridiculous thing, and I’m like, ‘There’s no way they want to keep that,’ and everyone would be like, ‘Keep doing that.’” 

One such moment was Dr. Langdon slapping the top of the doorway, and Dr. King repeating the action. While it was regarded as a cute moment that fleshed out their mentor-mentee relationship, it was Dearden having a laugh. “I wanted to tease Patrick, so I did the miss, and I anticipated everyone going, ‘That was funny; don’t do it again.’ And they went, ‘No, keep going.’ So it was really fun.”

The fun continues for Dearden very soon, with The Pitt’s second season boot camp starting next week. While she’s been given no insight into Dr. King’s future, she’s nonetheless excited.  “It’s exciting and also nerve-wracking,” she said. “I would love to have all the scripts right now. I think I know, at least, that I’m chomping at the bit to get something in my hands.”

The entire first season of The Pitt is available to stream on HBO Max. Taylor Dearden is Emmy-eligible in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.