The Pitt quickly became a smash hit for HBO Max in 2025, with the first season bringing Noah Wyle back to the world of fast-paced medical drama. That's not to say that the ER vet is the only factor in winning viewers over to streaming with an HBO Max subscription, and Taylor Dearden's Dr. Mel King has officially reached fan favorite status by this point in the 2026 TV schedule. The actress spoke with CinemaBlend about playing Mel in Season 2, as well as how far she's come since her very first credit as "Sad Faced Girl" on Breaking Bad in 2010.
Before the cast of The Pitt took the stage for the Impact Award at the 2026 SCAD TVfest in Atlanta, they opened up about everything from Noah Wyle as a director to Taylor Dearden's role in the 800th episode of The Simpsons. After I checked out Dearden's IMDb page, I had to ask the actress: how does it feel for her to have started on TV as more or less an extra on Breaking Bad to now playing a popular and quite layered doctor on The Pitt? She looked back to her early career and shared:
