Isa Briones, the Cool, Competent Filipina Doctor on ‘The Pitt’
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Isa Briones as Dr. Trinity Santos in “The Pitt” (Photo by Warrick Page/HBO Max)
I might as well be asking a basketball player: How does having two arms help you with your free throws? Logic won’t deter this intrepid reporter from using the art of inquiry to expand his library of hackneyed observations like: “Filipinos have a strong work ethic.” I might even get an unoriginal quote that doesn’t address my question: “We come from tightknit families.”
I go on asking the same question because that elusive insight occasionally materializes: “Filipinos are emotional people. When you experience an emotion so deeply, you must express it. If you feel something so extreme, you share it with the world through art.”
That most thoughtful response comes from Isa (pronounced ee-sa) Briones, 27: “Filipinos don’t always wear their hearts on their sleeves—their emotions run deep, often beyond easy expression or cliché. When she plays Dr. Trinity Santos on The Pitt (streaming on HBO Max), Briones taps into a reservoir of heavy emotions that Filipinos are known to display in their everyday lives.
Briones was born in London and is the daughter of Jon Jon Briones, originally from Quezon City. He built a distinguished career in musical theatre that includes the role of Hermes alongside Isa, who was Eurydice in Hadestown on Broadway. While playing The Engineer in London’s West End revival of Miss Saigon, Jon Jon met wife Megan Briones née Johnson, whose lineage is Swedish and Irish. The perfect match was made official in 1996. She works as a talent manager and leader of a singing group. Their other child, Teo Briones, is the only son though not the only actor in the family.
Talent Never Goes Out of Style
The movie industry adage, ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know,’ doesn’t apply to actors with musical theater connections. A film and television career became a possibility via a geographical route when Briones, then age 7, and her family moved to Los Angeles. Her parents never planned it that way.
Isa Briones and Noah Wyle (Photo by Warrick Page/HBO Max)
Speaking of her parents, Briones explains, “They moved to LA because they were theater actors, but they decided, ‘Maybe we can try auditioning for film and TV and see how it goes.’”
Children are impressionable, and Briones had this trait in common with other second graders. “When we moved to LA, I asked, ‘So when am I going to start auditioning?’”
They thought about the worries of all creatives with kids. Oh no! You’re dooming them to a life in show business.”
Mom and Dad would not let prevailing assumptions, however proven, become additional obstacles their fledglings would have to overcome. “They were scared for me and my brother. They worried. ‘Oh God, how is this going to go?’ But they were also very proud of us. They acknowledged, ‘At least you guys are good at what you do; it would have been really bad if you weren’t.’”
Like Father, Like Daughter
“With my dad and I, thank God, we had each other to lean on,” remembers Briones of the period when she and her father were pursuing starring roles in television. “We booked our first regular roles in series within a few months of each other.”
Briones joined the cast of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+ and her father worked on Ryan Murphy’s Ratched on Netflix. “We got to experience doing a TV show and being Number 2 on the call sheet at the same time even though we were obviously at different stages of our lives,” she says of their standing as seconds to the lead characters in television episodes.
Hollywood to Broadway and Back
After Star Trek: Picard concluded in 2023, Briones went back to the familiar territory of musical theatre but at the highest level as the star of Hadestown on Broadway. In auditions, her Filipina ancestry didn’t initially give her an edge despite the unfading reputation of Filipina Eva Noblezada-Carney, who originated the role of Eurydice on Broadway. Nor was the stereotype that all Filipinos can sing a deciding factor.
Alexandra Metz and Isa Briones (Photo by Warrick Page/HBO Max)
“I don’t necessarily look Filipina at first glance,” she references the effect of her biracial identity whenever she auditions. The Retina display of my iPad captures her lively hazel eyes, light skin worthy of K-pop contract, and dark hair that flows without frizz. “But when people find out that I am Filipino, they say, ‘Well, of course, she can sing.’”
She was performing in Hadestown six days a week while still anticipating her next gig. “I was making self-tapes for auditions during the day while I was doing eight shows a week.” She pauses a beat before continuing, “Then this audition came in, and I remember thinking ‘This is crazy. No one is going to believe me as a doctor.’ I almost didn’t audition but thank God I did.”
“Then I had my Zoom callback, and I left from Broadway straight to the airport to the studio building.”
Briones had to change minds and plans to become Dr. Trinity Santos on The Pitt. Medical scripts have had no space for Filipina doctors. Television shows attempt to mirror real hospital settings by assigning Filipinas to nurse roles. The two other Fil-Ams in The Pitt, Amielynn Abellera and Kristen Villanueva, play nurse characters Perlah Alawi and Princess Dela Cruz, respectively. Her bonds with “Titas” Amielynn and Kristen go beyond their Filipino culture.
“They’re both theater actors like me,” Isa notes. “I think you’ll find most of the actors on our show had done theater. It’s so special to be part of a very theatrical show.” She alludes to a secret ingredient behind a high level of competence within The Pitt cast that’s seldom encountered in other productions that grind social media influencers into television celebrities.
“The role wasn’t meant to be Filipino,” Briones returns to the beginning of her most public role. “They were looking for an Asian woman, no specific [nationality]. When they cast me for the part of Dr. Trinity Shah, I asked, ‘Hey, can you change the last name to reflect my background?’ And they were supportive.”
Showrunner R. Scott Gemmill and the rest of the creative team welcomed her input. “I gave them a list of names that felt right to me, and they decided Santos works.”
(Coincidentally, the maiden name of my maternal grandmother was Venturosa Santos.)
The show’s authenticity doesn’t end with a Filipino surname. “It’s important to everyone to express the full spectrum of who Filipinos are.”
In two seasons of The Pitt, each of 15 episodes represents one hour of a long shift in the Emergency Department of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Center. Last year, the plot revolved around victims of a mass shooting at a music festival. Season 2 brought medical staff up close and personal with patients who are under arrest, dying from cancer, foul smelling and homeless, showing early signs of schizophrenia, and suffering an assortment of injuries from losses of inhibitions that Independence Day can inspire.
On top of all that, the electronic medical record system was shut off due a cyber threat.
Taylor Dearden and Isa Briones (Photo by Warrick Page/HBO Max)
Dr. Santos Is So Filipino
The original intent wasn’t to create a generic Asian character; nevertheless, Briones must have really impressed Gemmill and company for them to accept the challenge of constructing a character as complex as a Filipina American doctor. In second-year resident, Dr. Santos, we see their diligence in portraying an individual’s struggle to balance Filipino values with American attitudes. And to reconcile with all with the universal responsibility of a physician to put the patient’s welfare ahead of her needs.
Filipinos make good healthcare workers because of their generous spirits. When their sacrifices go unappreciated, they become aware of unfair biases that limit their growth. Jealousy festers when their non-Filipino peers are rewarded for the types of contributions they have been making in silence. A Filipina can look past personal insults, neglect of her needs, and laziness, but, as a doctor she cannot ignore offenses that jeopardize the health of patients. We see this scenario in action after Dr. Santos reports star resident Dr. Frank Langdon (played by Patrick Ball) for stealing painkillers from a patient. She has compromised her Filipino vow of forgiveness by putting patients first.
As a biracial woman, Dr. Santos has probably endured alienation by full-blooded Filipinos and the white community. The consequences exceed personal slights when she becomes alienated in a trauma center that depends on teamwork to save lives.
Even the new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), resents Dr. Santos without knowledge of her history with Dr. Langdon. When Dr. Langdon returns from 10 months of rehab, it’s surprising to everyone but a Filipino viewer that Dr. Santos dismisses Dr. Langdon’s apology as nothing more than a requirement of his 12-step substance abuse program. He has no concept of how much mental distress he caused Dr. Santos by committing a criminal act she was obligated to report. Her spirit has been violated in such a way Filipinas are ill-equipped to handle.
Fans who grasp the importance of emotions to Filipinos may be further alarmed by her unwillingness to show vulnerability by leaning on fellow resident and roommate, Dr. Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell). He is the trusted friend she needs more than she knows. Filipinos hate being burdens, and doctors hate feeling powerless. Dr. Santos won’t overwhelm Dr. Whitaker with her workplace insecurities and an ever-present history of childhood sexual abuse that was disclosed in Season 1. Filipinos hate to be burdens. She knows that doctors feel powerless when they can’t identify a pathology, much less solve it.
Rescued By a Filipino Lullaby
Briones sings Ili ili, Tulog Anay, the Ilonggo lullaby. (Photo by Warrick Page/HBO Max)
This medical drama flourishes through the interplay of clinical procedures and human passions, but wisely The Pitt writing staff listens to medical consultants who emphasize that periodically even Dr. Zeus needs to shed excess lightning to stay sane.
“There are traumatic things that happen on the show, and then there will be a comedic moment,” Briones observes a pattern in the plotting. “That’s how it was when we talked to medical professionals. They tell us you have to laugh or else it’s going to be horrible all day. You’ll weep.”
Briones exudes optimism through a playful wit. For Dr. Santos, hilarity won’t displace her brooding and caustic sarcasm. Mercifully, in one episode Dr. Santos is given a cultural respite when the character sings a Filipino lullaby to soothe the inconsolable Baby Jane Doe who was abandoned in the lady’s restroom. “Scott Gimmell, our writer and showrunner, emailed me the idea for Dr. Santos to sing a lullaby,” she relates. “We were thinking maybe it could be a Filipino lullaby.”
“When he asked me how I felt about that, I was very excited.” Briones lights up with a smile as if she is reliving the moment during our interview. “I immediately called my dad, and he thought this is so exciting, too. We talked about it, and that’s when we landed on Ili ili, Tulog Anay, the Ilonggo lullaby.”
The Pitt has been given grief over its similarities to the medical drama ER, which was also produced by Warner Bros. but aired on the NBC television network from 1994 to 2009. (My HBO Max subscription fades into an ER episode from the WB library after each latest installment of The Pitt.) Obvious parallels are that both shows are set in emergency departments (as is the zany sitcom St. Denis Medical) and that actor Noah Wylie played medical resident Dr. Carter then and plays lead attending physician Dr. Robby now. I would argue that The Pitt has more in common with the long-running medical soap opera, General Hospital because in both series, each new episode is a continuation of the last one.
Episodes of The Pitt always end with a cliffhanger, and it will certainly end Season 2 with an avalanche given the mountains of unresolved angst circulating in the Emergency Department. The answer (or answers) that will keep Filipinos in a hiatus state of suspense concern: Dr. Santos finishes the night in a karaoke bar. What else does this Filipina need to get by?
‘Just in Time’ for Broadway
The last episode of Season 2 of The Pitt streams on April 23, 2026. Filming wrapped before April. Briones relaxed for four days in Mexico before she was back on Broadway. She could barely sip a margarita before she was back on stage as songstress Connie Francis in the hit musical Just in Time at Circle in the Square Theatre.
When she plays Dr. Trinity Santos on The Pitt (streaming on HBO Max), Briones taps into a reservoir of heavy emotions that Filipinos are known to display in their everyday lives.
“Connie Francis was a superstar of her time. She had such a beautiful voice,” she says of the famous vocalist of the 1950s and ’60s and first female to top the Billboard Hot 100. “I grew up hearing a lot of music from that era because my mom was in an Andrew Sisters tribute group that played at parties.” Audiences are falling for her rendition of the Francis standard, Who’s Sorry Now.
Right now, every minute is accounted for. Briones longs to visit the Philippines with her family. “I was seven the last time I was there,” she reveals. “A vacation didn’t work out this year because I only had four days off. We want to stay a long time because it’s such a long flight to travel there. Hopefully, when I’m done with Season 3, we’ll be able to go, because I haven’t seen so much of my family in so long. I need to see my Lola.”
Judging by the Tagalog lessons on her Rosetta Stone app, she is serious about revisiting the mother islands. (Her mention of Season 3 can only mean that Dr. Santos is returning to the ED.) The last question I always ask my subjects is: What is your go-to song when you’re handed the karaoke mic? She replies, “I often go with a Whitney Houston song. Her music usually vibes with me.”
The final episode of Season 2 ended with her character belting out an Alanis Morissette song. As someone who prefers Whitney Houston songs in real live, Briones deserves an Emmy for inhabiting a character who functions 180 degrees apart from her joyful nature.
Anthony Maddela writes articles, fiction, and grants in Los Angeles. He looks forward to the World Cup and in 2028, the Olympics. His family of four has tickets to see Olympic women’s and men’s climbing and skateboarding.
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