Latest news with #ShabanaAzeez
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
A Great Update About ‘The Pitt' Season 2's Release Date
The Pitt HBO Max (formerly Max, formerly HBO Max, formerly HBO) saw enormous success with The Pitt, its ER/24 combination that quickly became a fan-favorite. It announced that its goal was to pump out seasons quickly, and while that seemed unlikely in the current state of the streaming industry, there's some good news on whether or not that can happen. The Pitt actress Shabana Azeez, who played Dr. Javadi, recently posted a picture confirming that filming had commenced as planned in June, just a short while after The Pitt season 1 ended. The Pitt season 1 premiered in January of 2025 and ran until April 10 with a highly unusual 15-episode season. More unusual is the goal that the next season would be out much sooner than the 1.5-3 year gap between most streaming seasons. The idea was to have it out every year. We have data that The Pitt season 1 filming began in July of 2024, so that was six months before it premiered in January of 2025. So if filming is beginning now, in June of 2025, that would put the release date of The Pitt season 2 around either December of 2025 or perhaps once again in January of 2026, if it's pushed a little bit. The Pitt It is almost unheard of for two seasons of a streaming show to debut a year apart these days. We only see this in rare instances like with The Bear or Slow Horses. The broadcast model of 24 episodes seasons once a year is dead. But The Pitt? 15 episode seasons a year apart? That is truly a time warp, and it's no wonder that HBO Max wants to steam ahead with this, so long as it doesn't affect quality. You can make some similar comparisons to Hulu's The Bear, in fact, where both shows take place almost entirely within a single environment. The Bear, its restaurant. The Pitt, its ER department, the waiting room and the ambulance bay. And maybe two scenes on the roof, that's it. That said, this is still 50% more episodes than the 10-episode Bear seasons, and longer ones, at that. This really is a unicorn in the industry if they can pull it off. We know that almost the entire core cast will be returning to the show, including some actors who could have been written off due to various circumstances. In terms of the plot, we know that the day in question will be the Fourth of July, the busiest day in ERs around the country, and it will be Dr. Langdon's first day back after what is presumably a suspension/rehab stint. And it will be here in six months, thereabouts. Wild. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Pitt's breakout star Shabana Azeez loves a confronting role: ‘We want victims to be perfect'
It's a familiar story: the Australian actor who ascends to LA for their international breakout, dizzied by the experience of being a small fish in a vast, alien pond. But this wasn't the case for Adelaide born-and-raised Shabana Azeez who, after making herself known through a string of boundary pushing, budget-poor Australian projects, has now leapt assuredly into the world of The Pitt: an instantly buzzy, hyperreal medical drama from the 'creme de la creme of TV-makers in the world' – the team behind ER and The West Wing. 'I just want to be in things that people have never seen before. I just want to be working with people who have something to say,' says Azeez when we speak over the phone, her words tumbling quickly and with unbridled enthusiasm. Set over the course of one frantic day in an underfunded and rat-ridden Pittsburgh emergency department, The Pitt follows an ensemble – led by veteran actor-producer Noah Wyle as Dr Michael Robinavitch – of doctors, nurses and overeager interns in real time as they endure and innovate against the odds. Season one has just finished airing, capturing legions of fans in a spell of heartbreak, with audiences heralding its humane performances and sensitivity in broaching harrowing subjects. It is, of course, returning for a second outing next year. Azeez shines as polite and precocious intern Victoria Javadi, who radiates hope even after fainting within her first hour on the job. 'We experience healthcare workers as patients, [but] have we had empathy for them in all the ways we could have?' Azeez asks. 'The Pitt is so political.' An understated fan favourite, Javadi goes on to have one of the series' most striking character arcs, as she manages to face her overbearing surgeon mother and eke out brief moments for romance. 'I got the happiest experience that is humanly possible,' says Azeez of working on The Pitt after a surprisingly smooth casting process involving a single self-tape and a nine-minute Zoom call. 'Everyone was telling me that America was going to be crazy, with all these huge personalities.' Reflecting the ethos of the show, where every worker proves to be essential, cast members weren't divided into separate trailers. 'Everyone was equal,' Azeez says. And everyone – including directors and producers – 'came in wearing scrubs'. In their off-time, all the actors decompressed in a dark rec room. 'It was a very Australian experience of making a show – no egos, no fancy bells and whistles.' There are obvious similarities between Javadi's enthusiasm and Azeez's own infectious curiosity. She gushes about the 'bootcamp' that preceded The Pitt, which involved extensive training in suturing methods, intubating dummies and performing real ultrasounds on actors. The avid reception to the show has been a welcome surprise for Azeez. Only a few years ago, becoming an actor seemed like an impossible pipe dream. Idolising dramatic heavyweights such as Saoirse Ronan and Jennifer Lawrence as a teenager, Azeez always wanted to be a performer but the profession was forbidden by her parents. She ended up yearning from the sidelines as an arts administrator in early adulthood, adamant that 'the ship had sailed'. 'At 21, all the actors I was working with … had been acting since they were eight or had gone to drama school,' she says. Soon, she became immersed in Adelaide's grassroots film-making scene. She met now-longtime collaborators Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs, who cast Azeez in their early short films and would go on to facilitate her 'humbling' and 'rewarding' voice-acting debut in their sci-fi animated comedy Lesbian Space Princess, which premiered at Berlin film festival earlier this year and screens in Australia at Sydney film festival this June. 'I am so glad I'm from Adelaide,' says Azeez. 'I know not many people say that, but to me, because I didn't go to drama school, I really came up making short films with my friends.' Azeez's unimpeachable love of the process also came into play for her feature film debut in 2023's Birdeater, a high-octane psychological thriller about noxious masculinity that quickly garnered international attention. Despite its small budget, Covid disruptions and flooded shooting locations, Azeez describes the film as 'lightning in a bottle'. She plays the suspiciously sedate bride-to-be Irene, who is convinced by her fiance, Louie, to join a bachelor party weekend in an isolated cabin. As the trip becomes a nang and ketamine-fuelled spectacle of paranoia and violence, we witness Louie's increasingly horrific control over Irene. 'Often we want victims to be perfect, and we want perpetrators to be evil,' says Azeez, who sought to crack the mould of survivor representation. 'I really wanted to make [Irene] as invisible as possible in that film, so that no one even noticed she was there. I didn't want to make her funny or charming or light up rooms … because I really wanted you to fall in love with the boys and at the end of the film realise what you've done.' Azeez's approach was informed by on-the-ground research, interviewing everyone she could about coercive control. 'Whenever I explained it, every single woman had a story.' Despite the intensity of Azeez's burgeoning career, she shows no signs of exhaustion. Beyond the 'surreal' reception to her latest venture, she can't wait to get back into her 'bloody scrubs and worn-in Nikes'. It's hardly glamorous – 'but it looks like that from the outside,' she says. 'Maybe that's just how acting works, but I guess I'll learn that in the next few years.' Season two of The Pitt will premiere in 2026. Lesbian Space Princess screens at the Sydney film festival before a national release in September
The Age
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘It's an honour': Inside The Pitt with Australian actor Shabana Azeez
It's no secret The Pitt is one of the most exciting new shows of 2025. The bracing real-time medical drama, which followed hospital staff over the course of one relentless day in a Pittsburgh emergency room, won praise from critics, viewers and healthcare workers for its empathy and realism. But you might not have realised one of those endearing on-screen doctors is actually Australian. Deputy TV editor Meg Watson spoke to Shabana Azeez, who plays the show's youngest intern Dr Victoria Javadi, about landing her role in the hit show, working with Noah Wyle and other key creatives from ER, and what we can expect from season two. Loading MW: What have the past few months been like for you? This is by far the biggest project you've been a part of – the show averaged 10 million global viewers an episode, with Max reporting every episode since the premiere in January had more viewers than the last. SA: It's been wild! I really miss week-to-week TV like this. Bingeing is really fun, but I love shows that encourage watercooler conversations that the audience slowly trickle into. Especially ones like this with good character arcs. Even though the show was only 15 hours, over the course of one day, it stretched out to months for all of us. Absolutely. The show had good reviews from the start, but then it built such a connection with people as time went on. Was there a moment you realised, 'Oh this is actually a hit'? I knew it was good from the get-go, even though it was not an easy script. It was intense, dense with medical jargon. But I knew it was special. Seeing the table reads made me realise it was going to be incredible. And just knowing the team as well. For an Australian actor, for this to be your first American gig is the jackpot. I knew I was in safe hands and that I'd have the best experience of my life. A lot of Australians just don't watch Australian TV, and so you work for a long time without much recognition. Now, suddenly, everyone is watching. It's a long way from guest spots on Utopia, ABC's Fresh Blood Pilots and local indie films. How did you find yourself on the show? This was my second US audition – and I was so scared! I hadn't built any relationships in America yet. They saw one audition tape, and just believed in it. It's kind of crazy. I didn't get into drama school when I was younger, and my parents did not want me to be an actor. They thought that was a crazy career path – which is fair. They're not wrong. But I am so lucky. I worked at a filmmakers' hub and ended up making a bunch of friends who gave me a shot. That happened, like, 14 times in a row and that's sort of how I got here. I just want to act. I want to act so much. And I knew early on I'd have to move. I'm from Adelaide, where there's not heaps of stuff being made. This opportunity to work in America is a ticket to career sustainability, wherever I end up. My dream is that I get to make a little indie feature in every country once a year until I die! You're back in Adelaide, but filming for season two starts next month and the show will come back in January 2026. What does your life look like right now? I'm really excited to get into season two, but I haven't read any scripts yet. Everything is under lock and key, and I'll be the last to know. But it's been really great being back in Australia (and it's so strange to get recognised in Adelaide). I've been doing a lot of research, going to med schools and talking to students. Obviously, it's a very different environment to America, but I've learnt so much. Research is such an important part of being an actor – and something that's quite invisible from the outside. In this show, I think all the behind-the-scenes efforts have been made really clear. There's been so much talk about the medical supervision and the 'doctor boot camp' all the actors went through. The Pitt has rightfully been praised as the most realistic medical drama – and it seems to mean a lot to real healthcare workers. Does that response bring an added pressure now? Loading It's the most important thing for me. Healthcare workers are incredible, and it's a very, very difficult industry. The closer I get to it, the more completely in awe I am. I never watched a lot of medical dramas growing up, but being part of 'the accurate one' is a privilege. People have opened up to me in so many ways about the emotional impact of being in an emergency room: having to tell parents that their child is dead and then in the next second doing a knee replacement. You can't bring any emotional baggage with you, so it all gets compartmentalised. There's some pressure, but really it's an honour. Are there big differences in what Australian healthcare workers say to you versus people in the US? The themes are universal, but there are nuances that are so cultural. I did a lot of research on gun violence before season one. Obviously, I'm very unfamiliar with that and the toll it would take. My character is 20 years old; she would have been doing school shooter drills in primary school. That kind of thing impacts your reactions to a mass shooting in ways that maybe an Australian wouldn't have. It was actually really strange watching a bunch of American actors and crew do the mass shooting stuff. They had stories from their lives to draw on, things they'd all experienced. But I'm quite shocked by gun violence – it's not familiar to me. The cultural difference for myself and Gerran Howell, who's Welsh, were notable. There's such a great mix of talent on this cast – from up and comers to veterans like Noah Wyle, who is also an executive producer. Wyle was a TV doctor three decades ago, as John Carter on ER, and The Pitt shares so much creative DNA with that show. You said you weren't big on medical dramas, but had you seen ER before auditioning? I have now! And The West Wing and Shameless [all from John Wells Productions, founded by the former ER showrunner and Pitt EP]. This team is incredible. They're all wonderful to work with and are serious about being kind on set. There's a 'no assholes' policy. Everyone does background work, including Noah Wyle. We don't use stand-ins during scenes. There was so much empathy and care given to us, particularly from Noah and John. I uprooted my life to the other side of the world, and there was so much warmth and genuine care. Did Noah have any specific advice around that? He was, after all, just 23 when ER premiered. He was really supportive of everybody, in really clever ways. If you mentioned you liked something or had a shared interest, he would buy you books on it. For me, I really want to make films so he bought me Shot By Shot and In The Blink of an Eye. The books were waiting for me in my dressing room. He also encouraged me to come and shadow him on my days off. I'd just moved to this country, I didn't have any friends, and I was only working two days a fortnight. Everybody really encouraged me to come in and take up space, shadow directors, go to production meetings and see how TV gets made. Noah was really part of setting that tone. You mentioned you haven't seen any scripts for the next season yet. But we do know Dr Javadi is back. Creator R. Scott Gemmill has said she'll be doing a sub-internship and t he show will pick up around nine months after the events of season one. Do you have any hopes for her in season two? My thing about her is, I think she's really brave. And I don't know that people really give her any credit for that. She's a very book-smart person. But like anyone with massive skills in one area, she has massive deficits in others. Socially, she's not killing it. She has a fear of blood. And she grew up isolated, so she's very lonely. I'd love to see her make friends, and develop more empathy for patients in different situations. Also, I just kind of want her to get a date!
Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘It's an honour': Inside The Pitt with Australian actor Shabana Azeez
It's no secret The Pitt is one of the most exciting new shows of 2025. The bracing real-time medical drama, which followed hospital staff over the course of one relentless day in a Pittsburgh emergency room, won praise from critics, viewers and healthcare workers for its empathy and realism. But you might not have realised one of those endearing on-screen doctors is actually Australian. Deputy TV editor Meg Watson spoke to Shabana Azeez, who plays the show's youngest intern Dr Victoria Javadi, about landing her role in the hit show, working with Noah Wyle and other key creatives from ER, and what we can expect from season two. Loading MW: What have the past few months been like for you? This is by far the biggest project you've been a part of – the show averaged 10 million global viewers an episode, with Max reporting every episode since the premiere in January had more viewers than the last. SA: It's been wild! I really miss week-to-week TV like this. Bingeing is really fun, but I love shows that encourage watercooler conversations that the audience slowly trickle into. Especially ones like this with good character arcs. Even though the show was only 15 hours, over the course of one day, it stretched out to months for all of us. Absolutely. The show had good reviews from the start, but then it built such a connection with people as time went on. Was there a moment you realised, 'Oh this is actually a hit'? I knew it was good from the get-go, even though it was not an easy script. It was intense, dense with medical jargon. But I knew it was special. Seeing the table reads made me realise it was going to be incredible. And just knowing the team as well. For an Australian actor, for this to be your first American gig is the jackpot. I knew I was in safe hands and that I'd have the best experience of my life. A lot of Australians just don't watch Australian TV, and so you work for a long time without much recognition. Now, suddenly, everyone is watching. It's a long way from guest spots on Utopia, ABC's Fresh Blood Pilots and local indie films. How did you find yourself on the show? This was my second US audition – and I was so scared! I hadn't built any relationships in America yet. They saw one audition tape, and just believed in it. It's kind of crazy. I didn't get into drama school when I was younger, and my parents did not want me to be an actor. They thought that was a crazy career path – which is fair. They're not wrong. But I am so lucky. I worked at a filmmakers' hub and ended up making a bunch of friends who gave me a shot. That happened, like, 14 times in a row and that's sort of how I got here. I just want to act. I want to act so much. And I knew early on I'd have to move. I'm from Adelaide, where there's not heaps of stuff being made. This opportunity to work in America is a ticket to career sustainability, wherever I end up. My dream is that I get to make a little indie feature in every country once a year until I die! You're back in Adelaide, but filming for season two starts next month and the show will come back in January 2026. What does your life look like right now? I'm really excited to get into season two, but I haven't read any scripts yet. Everything is under lock and key, and I'll be the last to know. But it's been really great being back in Australia (and it's so strange to get recognised in Adelaide). I've been doing a lot of research, going to med schools and talking to students. Obviously, it's a very different environment to America, but I've learnt so much. Research is such an important part of being an actor – and something that's quite invisible from the outside. In this show, I think all the behind-the-scenes efforts have been made really clear. There's been so much talk about the medical supervision and the 'doctor boot camp' all the actors went through. The Pitt has rightfully been praised as the most realistic medical drama – and it seems to mean a lot to real healthcare workers. Does that response bring an added pressure now? Loading It's the most important thing for me. Healthcare workers are incredible, and it's a very, very difficult industry. The closer I get to it, the more completely in awe I am. I never watched a lot of medical dramas growing up, but being part of 'the accurate one' is a privilege. People have opened up to me in so many ways about the emotional impact of being in an emergency room: having to tell parents that their child is dead and then in the next second doing a knee replacement. You can't bring any emotional baggage with you, so it all gets compartmentalised. There's some pressure, but really it's an honour. Are there big differences in what Australian healthcare workers say to you versus people in the US? The themes are universal, but there are nuances that are so cultural. I did a lot of research on gun violence before season one. Obviously, I'm very unfamiliar with that and the toll it would take. My character is 20 years old; she would have been doing school shooter drills in primary school. That kind of thing impacts your reactions to a mass shooting in ways that maybe an Australian wouldn't have. It was actually really strange watching a bunch of American actors and crew do the mass shooting stuff. They had stories from their lives to draw on, things they'd all experienced. But I'm quite shocked by gun violence – it's not familiar to me. The cultural difference for myself and Gerran Howell, who's Welsh, were notable. There's such a great mix of talent on this cast – from up and comers to veterans like Noah Wyle, who is also an executive producer. Wyle was a TV doctor three decades ago, as John Carter on ER, and The Pitt shares so much creative DNA with that show. You said you weren't big on medical dramas, but had you seen ER before auditioning? I have now! And The West Wing and Shameless [all from John Wells Productions, founded by the former ER showrunner and Pitt EP]. This team is incredible. They're all wonderful to work with and are serious about being kind on set. There's a 'no assholes' policy. Everyone does background work, including Noah Wyle. We don't use stand-ins during scenes. There was so much empathy and care given to us, particularly from Noah and John. I uprooted my life to the other side of the world, and there was so much warmth and genuine care. Did Noah have any specific advice around that? He was, after all, just 23 when ER premiered. He was really supportive of everybody, in really clever ways. If you mentioned you liked something or had a shared interest, he would buy you books on it. For me, I really want to make films so he bought me Shot By Shot and In The Blink of an Eye. The books were waiting for me in my dressing room. He also encouraged me to come and shadow him on my days off. I'd just moved to this country, I didn't have any friends, and I was only working two days a fortnight. Everybody really encouraged me to come in and take up space, shadow directors, go to production meetings and see how TV gets made. Noah was really part of setting that tone. You mentioned you haven't seen any scripts for the next season yet. But we do know Dr Javadi is back. Creator R. Scott Gemmill has said she'll be doing a sub-internship and t he show will pick up around nine months after the events of season one. Do you have any hopes for her in season two? My thing about her is, I think she's really brave. And I don't know that people really give her any credit for that. She's a very book-smart person. But like anyone with massive skills in one area, she has massive deficits in others. Socially, she's not killing it. She has a fear of blood. And she grew up isolated, so she's very lonely. I'd love to see her make friends, and develop more empathy for patients in different situations. Also, I just kind of want her to get a date!
