“The Pitt” is back in Pittsburgh.
Cast and crew of HBO Max’s Emmy-winning hit medical series are in Pittsburgh to film exterior scenes at Allegheny General Hospital ahead of Season 3, which is set to premiere Jan. 3.
Actors Noah Wyle (Dr. Michael Robby), Katherine LaNasa (Dana Evans), Patrick Ball (Dr. Frank Langdon) and Taylor Dearden (Dr. Melissa “Mel” King) took a few moments away from filming to share insights about what’s to come in the new episodes, their local inspirations, and to view a new public artwork dedicated to the show.
Big Beautiful Bill and homelessness in Pittsburgh
Wyle, who is also an executive producer of the show, said the new season’s episodes will follow characters as they work a single emergency room shift: Nov. 12, 2026.
He says the specific day was chosen because of its significance for the country and the Pittsburgh region as potentially hundreds of thousands of people enrolled in Medicaid face losing healthcare coverage ahead of changes outlined in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
“I just like the notion that as bad as today is, tomorrow is Friday the 13th,” Wyle said of choosing the date. “We wanted to show this period of time that we’re all in right now, which is a moment of apprehension and fear for a lot of people as they await the changes that are going to come in the Big Beautiful Bill in January. We wanted to hit that moment and depict it.”
Ivy S. Fowler
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90.5 WESA
“The Pitt” stars Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Taylor Dearden and Patrick Ball at a press conference inside of Allegheny General Hospital on Oct. 26, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
A homeless encampment serves as a major theme in the season, Wyle said. He researched Operation Safety Net, a social service and outreach program for people who are homeless in Allegheny County and one of the nation’s first full-time street medicine programs, founded here in Pittsburgh.
“It seemed appropriate to focus the narrative on something very local,” Wyle said. “In the same way we want to talk about the pressures happening in the health care system, we want to talk about the solutions that are being implemented as well.”
While the show is filmed on a Los Angeles sound stage, Wyle said coming to Pittsburgh shows the actors the impact of the show on the city, while giving the cast opportunities to bond.
‘Ascension’ of Dr. Robby
Wyle said his character rejoins his colleagues following a sabbatical departure at the end of Season 2.
“Robby is making his ascension out of the proverbial ‘Pitt,'” Wyle said. “He’s gone on his sabbatical and he’s come back to get the help everyone’s told him he should be getting. You’re going to see a slightly more aspirational Robby than you’ve met before. He’s more the man and physician that he probably was before Season 1, a version of himself he hasn’t even seen for a long time.”
Other characters, like LaNasa’s charge nurse Dana Evans, will drive storylines, Wyle said.
“Who he was as Dr. Robby was so different than I had seen — it arrested me,” LaNasa said. But her character is “having a hard time,” she added.
Dearden said her character Mel is also “having a bad day” while Ball said his character Langdon is “doing great.”
Chalk mural by local artist features ‘Pitt’ characters
Wyle, LaNasa, Ball and Dearden got a glimpse of a new chalk mural by local artist Erik Greenawalt featuring the show’s characters with the South Tower as a backdrop. Greenawalt said the 10 ft by 15 ft chalk art project took at least 40 hours of drawing.
“A lot of work went into this — trying to get their details right, and get their features right,” he said.
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— The Pitt Allegheny General Hospital filming mural Pittsburgh
Mural artist “The Chalking Dad,” aka Erik Greenawalt, puts the finishing touches on his mural of “The Pitt” cast outside Allegheny General Hospital on Oct. 26, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
Ivy S. Fowler / 90.5 WESA
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— The Pitt AGH Media Day-8.jpg
Mural artist “The Chalking Dad,” aka Erik Greenawalt, puts the finishing touches on his mural of “The Pitt” cast outside Allegheny General Hospital on Oct. 26, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
Ivy S. Fowler / 90.5 WESA
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— The Pitt AGH Media Day-8-2.jpg
Mural artist “The Chalking Dad,” aka Erik Greenawalt, puts the finishing touches on his mural of “The Pitt” cast outside Allegheny General Hospital on Oct. 26, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
Ivy S. Fowler / 90.5 WESA
Greenawalt loves “The Pitt” and says his own experiences shape his connection.
“I’ve been a huge fan of the show … and over the past year when my own parents, who have had a lot of health issues and medical needs and emergency medical needs,” he said, “I really admire what people in the medical profession do and love how this captures it.”
Ivy S. Fowler
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90.5 WESA
The Pitt stars Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Taylor Dearden and Patrick Ball admire a chalk mural of the cast at Allegheny General Hospital created by Erik Greenawalt on Oct. 26, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
“Pitt” cast members posed with the mural and took photos with Greenawalt. The mural is set to be relocated to a permanent location.
Pittsburgh nurse says ‘Pitt’ shows real side of the job
Director of Emergency Services at AGH Kathy Sikora is the real life Dana Evans — the charge nurse played by LaNasa. Sikora said LaNasa’s depiction of her character has raised the national profile of nurses.
Ivy S. Fowler
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90.5 WESA
Director of Emergency Services at AGH, Kathy Sikora, left, and “The Pitt” star Katherine LaNasa, right, walk through the halls of Allegheny General Hospital on Oct. 26, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
“Katherine does an amazing job of representing not only myself but nurses across the country,” Sikora said. “The things she’s done season after season — its brought a light to so many things, from work place violence to sexual assault this past season.
“I told Noah after Season 1, you don’t realize the impact of what you’re doing — you’re showing things we don’t talk about with our friends or our family at our dinner table … We continue to reap the benefits of their performances.”
LaNasa said she anticipates asking Sikora what’s happening on the ground in her work at AGH.
“Coming to the hospital … it’s where you hear what’s immediate,” LaNasa said. “I always am changed. I was changed by what I learned here last year, I was changed by what I saw. I’m hungry for that … What I learn, I’ll take that this year with me.”
Ivy Fowler and David Lance contributed to this report.