The actor on Duke and Robby’s “love story,” working with Noah Wyle, and whether he’ll be back next season.

While The Pitt has never shied away from prosthetics when it comes to blown-off hands or an extremely vivid vaginal birth, there’s nothing fake about Howard Knox, the 472-pound patient wheeled into the ER in season two, episode eight.

Played with compassion and charm by ER veteran Craig Ricci Shaynak, Howard has walked a long path to his current weight. Based in part on Shaynak’s real life, Howard’s plight involves a car accident, some burns, a few surgeries, and years of general isolation, all of which add up to a complicated and sympathetic story when he arrives at the ER with a fever and abdominal pain.

Noah Wyle and Sally Field first worked together on “ER,” when Wyle was among that show’s breakout stars and Field was already an established legend. Now, they’re reuniting to discuss emotionally charged work they’ve done in the past season. On “The Pitt,” for which Wyle won the Emmy for best actor in a drama last season, protagonist Dr. “Robby” Robinavitch had a seasonlong existential crisis, culminating in his admitting to thinking about suicide. In the TV movie “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” Field’s Tova, an aquarium janitor who is herself grieving, finds a new lease on life thanks to her bond with an octopus called Marcellus.

Since launching at the start of 2025, “The Pitt” has emerged as more than just a hyperrealistic depiction of an embattled American emergency department. Using its hospital setting as a social microcosm, HBO Max’s Emmy-winning juggernaut has explored various systemic issues — including the misogyny that women of color face in the workplace.

Ms. Briones spent much of the past year in Los Angeles shooting Season 2 of “The Pitt,” HBO Max’s hit medical drama, but now she’s enjoying a change of pace: playing a pop star in the musical “Just in Time” on Broadway.

She is one of several “Pitt” stars taking to the stage. “It’s just such a joyous night at the theater,” she said. “You leave with the biggest smile on your face.”

Ms. Briones spent a Sunday with The New York Times as she got ready for a performance.

For a character who pops up in only a few episodes of The Pitt, fourth-year resident Crus Henderson makes a strong impression. Even more than the other chill night-shift doctors, Crus is cool as a cucumber, breezing through patient interactions with a reassuring smile. To many viewers, he’s also arriving as a familiar face: Luke Tennie has had a main role on Shrinking as Sean, a patient who moves in with his therapist, Jimmy (co-creator Jason Segel), since season one. He also recently showed up for a recurring role on Abbott Elementary as Dom, a new teacher whose experience of ADHD recently led to a misunderstanding in a memorable B-plot.

All three series happen to shoot on the same lot in Los Angeles — and to Tennie, each part offered something different. Above all, though, he’s dedicated to versatility in supporting roles. “As somebody who’s part of a procedural, you have to know the story is the main character,” Tennie says of his approach to The Pitt. “I was an offensive lineman in high school, I’m a tea

Katherine LaNasa says that her charge nurse character, Dana Evans, on “The Pitt” would never use the word “triggering,” but the Emmy winner can’t help but reach for it when trying to grapple with the end of Season 2’s 13th hour on the clock.

If you think it’s hectic to watch, just imagine what it’s like to be on the operating table

Shawn Hatosy, who plays Dr. Jack on The Pitt Abbott, breaks down the biggest moments of season two so far.

When he’s not on HBO, Shawn Hatosy is reading ‘70s paperbacks and eyeing a few adaptations he’d like to see hit the big screen.

“If nurses and doctors care for a guy like this in real life, that’s a tribute to the health-care system,” says Ernest Harden Jr., who plays Louie in The Pitt.

As season one of The Pitt wound down, Patrick Ball was convinced his character wouldn’t be returning to the show. “The ego of an actor means, generally speaking, you’re always sure that you’re the worst one and that you’re the most likely to get fired,” he laughs. “I, however, did have a unique claim to this anxiety because my character was literally fired from the hospital — and he did steal drugs.”

Isa Briones, who plays Dr. Trinity Santos on ‘The Pitt,’ breaks down the second season, what’s ahead and her musical theater background.

In Wyle’s blue-gloved hands, Dr. Robby is one of the most magnetic characters on TV: an expertly titrated mixture of confidence, empathy, recklessness, restraint, humility and smoking hot charm.

The Pitt’s Katherine LaNasa discusses the finale, what’s in store for Nurse Dana, why she wanted to nail the Pittsburgh accent, and more.

Shawn Hatosy discusses HBO Max’s hit show The Pitt, his guest role as Dr. Abbot and the ‘meaningful response’ he’s gotten from the medical community.

Parade speaks with ‘The Pitt’ creator R. Scott Gemmill and executive producer Joe Sachs about creating their mass shooting storyline for the Max medical drama, and what medical procedures they invented for the show.

“We love to play with blood,” Interview With the Vampire hair designer Francesco Pegoretti says gleefully of the substance that’s the literal life source of the characters whose beautifully frightening appearance he helps craft behind the scenes. “We feel like kids playing with these things to create monsters,” adds makeup designer Vincenzo Mastrantonio. “When we start adding the blood, we also put in the fake teeth. That’s when it all comes together.”

The actors of the medical drama tease some key upcoming moments witnessed on set by Vanity Fair, while also reflecting on their Emmy-nominated breakout first season. Plus: Noah Wyle dances.

The drive to Petersburg, Virginia, pours out of him: a memory in slow motion.

Green fields blurring past the windows, telephone lines trailing across the sky. Behind the wheel, Tramell Tillman, then in his 20s, sits in silence, his mother beside him. It’s the holiday season — a time of hushed reverence and fragile traditions, of winter roses and greeting cards that can say too little or too much. They’re headed to visit his grandmother, the family matriarch. But Tre, as his family calls him, has brought something else on the trip: a truth that has matured quietly inside him for years. “Mom, I’m bisexual,” he says to her, his eyes fixed on the road.

She glances at him, surprise flickering across her face, before turning her gaze back to the highway: “Well, how’s that going for you?”