HBO Max's "The Pitt" opens on a sleepy Steel City as Dr. Robby Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) makes his way to work at a Pittsburgh emergency room. He's met with a waiting room overflowing with patients and only makes it a couple of feet onto the ER floor before two people bombard him with questions. "Is it true? Simi told Hector that Dr. Deranjian said the hospital was up for sale," nurse Perlah, played by Amielynn Abellera, says, marking the series' first line of dialogue. "They might turn it into an ortho center, with no ER," Kristin Villanueva's character, Princess, chimes in. Robby diplomatically denies the rumors, but Princess and Perlah don't buy it. Still flanking the senior attending physician, Princess asks Perlah in Tagalog, "Do you believe him?" "I never trust the doctors," she responds. The exchange — featuring one of the primary languages spoken in the Philippines — takes place less than three minutes into the show, establishing Princess and Perlah as two of the emergency room's most beloved figures. Throughout “The Pitt,” Abellera and Villanueva’s characters, who make appearances in every episode, provide both comedic relief and constant life-saving assistance to keep the place running. “It’s such an honor. I’m so excited and to be a part of ‘The Pitt’ where there’s three of us — there’s three (Filipino women) in the whole main ensemble of the storytelling,” Abellera tells TODAY.com, referring to herself, Villanueva and Isa Briones, who plays Dr. Trinity Santos. “I’m still pinching myself that that’s even happening — that specifically Filipino stories are being told through these three characters.” Filipino nurses are a critical part of the nursing workforce in the U.S. While Abellera was raised by a nurse and doctor, she says she didn’t know how much of an impact Filipino nurses had on the American health care system until she was an adult, citing a lack of representation in Hollywood. "In a way, that makes me really melancholic of how I didn't have that growing up," she says. "But cut to today, there just seems to be this sort of cultural tectonic shift of Filipino and Filipino American stories and experiences being able to make their way into these mainstream media spaces." In the U.S., 4% of the nursing workforce is made up of Filipinos, despite the demographic only making up 1% of the total U.S. population, according to a 2024 article written for the National Institutes of Health's official newsletter. The prevalence of nurses who are Filipino in the U.S. stems from colonization of the Philippines, per the NIH. Starting in the 1900s, Filipinos could immigrate to the U.S. through their work as nurses, and "they embedded themselves as an integral part of the American healthcare system," the NIH article states. But despite the prevalence of Filipino nurses in the workforce, in the medical subgenre of TV dramas, they haven't always been represented until recently. "Grey's Anatomy" featured a Filipino nurse in the Season 17 finale. The 2024 ER-set mockumentary "St. Denis Medical" spotlighted the cool nurses on the floor — a "clique" of Filipino nurses — in its fourth episode, titled, "Salamat You Too." (Salamat means "thank you" in Tagalog.) And then there's "The Pitt," which Abellera and Villanueva say celebrates the importance of a community that has long been overlooked in Hollywood. A spotlight on Tagalog In “The Pitt,” Princess and Perlah often converse in Tagalog — occasionally to discuss the other doctors. There's even one scene in Episode 11 where Dr. Santos (Isa Briones) overhears Princess and Perlah's conversation and chimes in in Tagalog, surprising Princess and Perlah. "I told you she was Filipina," Perlah whispers to Princess after. Villanueva says she's "usually the Isa" in that kind of situation. She calls filming the scene "so fun," adding that they improvised several takes. "It's very gratifying," she says. "And for it to happen towards the later part of the season, it's just brilliant." Abellera says she isn’t a native speaker of Tagalog, but when the show began, she was about five years into lessons in an effort to “embrace this side” of her culture. “We’re so proud of our language, we’re so proud to meet other Filipinos in our workspaces and out in the community,” she says. “And so, for that to be just a part of the storytelling is just an incredible thing.” Abellera adds that some of Perlah's habits and mannerisms — from the way she charts to the Post-it notes littering her workspace — were inspired by watching her parents at work. Abellera’s dad is a doctor, while her mom is a nurse. “I always got to see my dad interact with patients and with nurses, and then I also got to see my mom interact with her nurse friends and speak Tagalog with them,” she says. “How it’s just a joyous experience for them to be able to bond over their Tagalog and also bringing food and being able to celebrate their culture in that way.” More than background characters In a show that's so serious Abellera won't let her daughter watch it, Princess and Perlah often lighten the mood, from commenting on doctor's love lives to theorizing why two people might be fighting. But Villanueva wants to make it clear that their characters are much more than just a duo gossiping in the background. Villanueva says she previously told her agent that she wanted to limit the amount of nursing roles she auditioned for as she found the characters were often there in the background to “check a box.” “I didn’t want to perpetuate that kind of lack of focus on nurses’ personality,” Villanueva says. “They have points of view, they have humor, they have feelings. So, I just could feel that there’s a lot more progress that we can do.” But she says from the moment she got “The Pitt” casting call, she knew Princess was more than a background character. The name tipped her off first. “I saw Princess’ name, like somebody did a lot of research. ... You wouldn’t blink twice if you meet a Filipino that’s named Princess, but to the whole world, it’s kind of like, ‘Huh, that’s an odd, special name,’” she says. Villanueva also recalls reviewing a complex description accompanying the character, giving Princess a decided amount of depth. Princess isn't just a “yes, doctor” figure, Villanueva says. Instead, she was described as a “force not to messed with.” Other details included that she speaks six languages and has a personality both “animated and spunky” and “whip smart with a dose of sarcasm.” Villanueva admits that it was “a little bit scary at first,” knowing that strides toward representation come with a pressure to get it right. But she calls the chance to add to that representation in Hollywood an “absolute honor.” “It’s like getting to play a real-life superhero in scrubs,” she says. Perlah and Princess are also established leaders in the ER. After charge nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) is punched by an unsatisfied patient, Perlah steps in to run the floor, after Princess volunteers on her behalf. “I think all of us are ready to go whenever Dana needs assistance,” Abellera says. Much of the inspiration for Abellera's portrayal of Perlah came from her mom, but she adds she had to do a lot of research to understand the character. Abellera grew up Catholic, while Perlah is Muslim. Perlah is written as a practicing, hijab-wearing Muslim woman, but she isn’t defined by her religion, Abellera says. “I think that is so important that that’s just her and there’s no question about it,” she says. “It’s not emphasized in a way that we have to think about it, and it’s not written into any dramatic or funny character storyline. And I think that’s what I love about all the characters and the specific nature of what they represent in the world, because that is exactly what the world is.” “We all have different backgrounds, we all have different faiths, we all have different things that are visible or not visible,” she adds. “And it doesn’t have to change anything — like we don’t have to pay attention to it. And I think that’s something that I find the Filipino American Muslim community has really reached out and told me about is that it’s a big deal that it’s not a big deal. You’re just you and you’re just Muslim.” Fan-favorite status Villanueva says she’s “very happy that a lot of Filipino nurses feel very, very seen” by her and Abellera’s characters. Audiences have also taken note of Princess and Perlah, with viewers on social media swiftly giving them fan-favorite treatment and praising their depiction. "princess and perlah remind me of my auntie emmy," one X user wrote in part, accompanied by a heart emoji-filled meme and the text, "i love you." "They kill me! That’s what makes The Pitt so realistic," one Redditor wrote about the duo. "Filipinas make up a sizeable portion of hospital care but you rarely see them in TV hospital dramas." Another Reddit user pointed out that during a particularly tense scene, when a gun is found strapped to a patient's leg, everyone ducks — except Perlah, who throws herself over the patient on the gurney in front of her. "Not all heroes wear capes, some rock scrubs and a hijab," the commenter wrote. Abellera says that moment wasn't scripted. "I just remember hearing the word gun, and I heard the patient actress breathe — and it was almost this strange, fear, scared whimper — and I just instinctually jumped on her," Abellera says. "It was not written in the script at all, but I, for whatever reason, I felt the need to protect this person, and as a nurse, that’s all I wanted to do, because she was terrified." She jokes that when she first dove across the patient, it shocked everyone, even herself. But then the room burst into applause, and the director decided to keep it in. What's next for Princess and Perlah? As “The Pitt” only documented one shift in Princess and Perlah’s life, both Abellera and Villanueva have dreams for how their characters could grow in the show's already renewed Season Two. Villanueva hopes to showcase more of Princess’s spirit in future episodes and see how she interacts with more of the wide cast of characters. "The possibilities are endless, right?" she says. "I guess I'd love to see more patient interaction. It would be nice to see how she gets along with the residents — the new residents that we met last season. That'd be exciting." Abellera says she used small details from the show as well as her imagination to create background for Perlah. She believes that Perlah worked through COVID-19 alongside Dr. Robby, and outside of the hospital, she says her character is a single mom, identifies as queer and grew into her faith and culture as an adult. “I wish that gets written in. I want that to happen,” Abellera says. “Whatever that means for the story, I would love that.” CORRECTION (May 30, 2025): A previous version of this article had a misspelling of Kristin Villanueva's last name.
