‘The Pitt’ star Taylor Dearden recalls cast reactions to Emmy noms
“The Pitt” star Taylor Dearden recalls how her costar and series executive producer Noah Wyle reacted to the HBO hit’s Emmy nominations.
Before even taking on the role of Dr. Mel King in 2025 on HBO’s “The Pitt,” Taylor Dearden faced the most personal decision of her acting career.
The then-little-known actress, daughter of actors Bryan Cranston and Robin Dearden, had to consider whether she was ready to publicly reveal her own ADHD diagnosis by playing the character even she refers to simply as Mel.
Dearden, 33, recalls a pivotal conversation with “The Pitt” executive producer and showrunner John Wells before taking the spotlight role.
“John said something incredibly thoughtful when he asked, ‘Are you ready to metaphorically come out of the neurodivergent closet? Are you ready to represent?’ He said to me, ‘Take the weekend and let me know if you’re ready to be a figurehead for this,'” Dearden recalls to USA TODAY. “That really affected me. Because I realized I wanted to see more real portrayals on TV. But I’m also going to unmask myself. Am I ready for that?”
“And after the weekend, I came back in and said, ‘Let’s go.'”
Dearden took off as fan-favorite Mel at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, and the personal gamble paid off. In July, the breakout “Pitt” star celebrated in scrubs with her castmates on the hospital set after earning her first career Emmy nomination for supporting actress – part of “The Pitt’s” awards juggernaut, with the medical drama leading all shows with 25 nominations for Season 2.But for Dearden, the impact of playing Mel goes well beyond awards recognition. Her nuanced portrayal has given neurodivergent viewers a rare chance to see their own experiences authentically reflected onscreen, while bringing greater visibility and understanding to a community long saddled with Hollywood stereotypes.
“It means, here’s this group of people who thought they were freaks for so long,” says Dearden. “So many people see themselves in Mel. So that’s very special.”
Dearden didn’t know when first reading for Mel, a character which still has not expressed a specific diagnosis, that the character was going to exhibit traits of neurodivergence.
“But when I read the scripts, I got the vibe,” says Dearden. “The producers didn’t initially know that I was neurodivergent when I auditioned, but I really leaned into that aspect with Mel.”
When producers later mentioned that they were seeking to cast a neurodivergent actor for the role, Dearden spoke up.
“I remember that day, because when they told me that I went, ‘Well, you’re in luck, because I’m also spicy,'” says Dearden.
Dearden has worked closely with “The Pitt” team, including Wells, Noah Wyle and autism consultant Dr. Wendy Ross to bring aspects of Dearden’s personality to the character, even though “Mel’s diagnosis is different than my own.”
During Season 1, as the cast geared up for the depiction of the upcoming mass casualty shooting, Dearden pitched an idea to Wyle.
“I said, ‘I don’t know if you know this, but there’s this thing with my neurodivergence or ADHD – we’re really good in emergencies,'” says Dearden. “Emergency departments and firefighters are disproportionately ADHD-represented. But I feel like Mel could click in here and filter out the noise. And Noah told me ‘You don’t know how, but that’s really going to work.'”
When the shooting victims flooded the ER in Episode 11, Mel became noticeably calmer, more focused and decisive.
The Renaissance Faire-loving Mel’s humor is an especially unexpected reason why the character has become a fan favorite. Mel can also be screamingly funny, often without realizing it. Her earnest oversharing, unexpected bluntness and tendency to take words literally give Dearden some of “The Pitt’s” best deadpan moments, often from improv.
“Often with Mel, it’s that she’s so invested in everything else, that she’s not noticing the joke she’s set up,” says Dearden. “I’ll tell the directors, just tell me to turn it up or turn it down. But I’ll keep trying stuff. And if it works, it stays.”
What will happen in Season 3 for Mel in ‘The Pitt’?
Season 2 has seen two dominant Mel storylines – a taxing deposition in a medical malpractice lawsuit that leaves Mel increasingly preoccupied, and her relationship with her neurodivergent sister, Becca King (Emmy-nominated actress Tal Anderson), who begins dating despite Mel’s overprotective concerns. Both storylines will continue into Season 3, currently in production, which takes places in November, months after the July 4 holiday Season 2.
“Mel’s been acting as Becca’s caretaker, whether Becca wanted it or not,” says Dearden. “Season 3 is going to be a lot trying to figure who she is as herself for the first time. We’ll see her trying to be her own person with her own friends.”
Viewers already got a glimpse of how this could play out during the blowout final Season 2 scene – a tiki bar karaoke post-shift outing with Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones), offering a rare “Pitt” look at any character outside the hospital walls.
“It was so weird. They created this tiki bar nowhere close to the hospital set. It felt so odd,” Dearden says of the early morning shoot, which saw Broadway star Briones deliberately holding back vocally for TV. “Before we shot, Isa said, ‘I don’t think Santos is a great singer.’ I was like, ‘Oh, thank God!’ Because otherwise, that would have sucked. If Isa and Taylor ever went out to karaoke, I wouldn’t sing at all.”
Both actresses pulled off the hair-flipping, tension-relieving version of Alanis Morissette’s ’90s rage-anthem “You Oughta Know,” putting an exclamation mark ending on “The Pitt” Season 2.
“We got ourselves hyped up, and we did the song twice,” says Dearden. “And the director was like, ‘Yep, we got it. We’re good.’ It was a blast.”