JB Tadena Reflects on His Artistic Journey as He Joins the Cast of The Pitt

The Filipino American actor takes on the role of Dr. Reed Thomas, an attending physician in the award-winning series.

JB Tadena didn’t follow the traditional path into acting. He focused on his academics, pursued computer engineering, and eventually became a satellite engineer at a government agency in eastern Virginia. As he puts it, “The path to performance or arts is not really the first choice of a parent.”

But when his father fell ill and battled prostate cancer in 2009, he began to recognize JB’s “artistic bug” and his desire to pursue something different from the path he had taken. It was then that his parents began to see the love and passion JB had for his craft.

“I started taking classes and doing theater in the Washington, D.C., area, which has a very vibrant theater scene,” he recounts. “And as my dad got worse, he told me [that] he wanted me to pursue this dream and goal, and that he knew I loved it. He didn’t want to hold me back and have me resent my family. So he kind of gave me that blessing, which was just like a gigantic weight off my shoulders.”

In 2013, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career, making connections through classes, workshops, and auditions. “There’s no nepotism,” he says with a laugh.

Like everyone else who has had to start from scratch and carve out their own path in the industry, JB struggled with the financial, emotional, and mental demands of getting his career off the ground. But after returning home from a class where he felt he had performed poorly, he received the biggest news he had gotten in a while: He had been cast as a nurse in Grey’s Anatomy.

“Things get steady from there; it’s the classic journeyman actor’s path. And when I started to book some larger roles, that’s when you think things are starting to click. And then, you go on a drought for a year. And [there are] many moments where you think you’re going to quit,” he says. “But there’s just something that keeps you in it, because you just love doing it so much.”

After years of navigating acting, JB is more than excited to join the cast of The Pitt, where he will play Dr. Reed Thomas, an attending physician. “Everybody knows The Pitt. There are three Filipinos on The Pitt, which is unheard of. So to be able to join the history behind those Filipinos on the show, play [as] a doctor, and be part of something so beloved right now was really exciting.”

His mother, a nurse, has been a great help in understanding his role, particularly her insight into what actually happens in an emergency room, like how some cases can be particularly heavy as medical practitioners deal with trauma and loss. JB finds comfort in knowing that, amid these difficult situations, medical practitioners can come together to help people. He’s since realized that while the role involves a roller coaster of emotions, the work itself is more mentally challenging.

“To prepare specifically for my role, you kind of do as much research as you can on what these physicians go through every day and some of the types of patients that they might deal with,” he explains. “Going through that process was both exhausting and fulfilling.”

Joining an already established ensemble is nothing new to JB, but the warm welcome he received made him realize what a great environment the show is surrounded by. That alone, he says, made him feel that he was becoming part of something bigger than himself.

Part of the pride he feels for the show is the visibility it brings to Filipinos in Hollywood. As a Filipino American working in the industry today, he admits, he still finds it challenging to navigate. While Asians are already a small subset within broader culture, Filipinos are an even smaller subset. Shows like The Pitt help fill that gap in visibility.

“You see many more Filipinos in television nowadays—Isa Briones, Eugene Cordero, Manny Jacinto,” he says. “So many different characters out there are [now] being played by Filipinos… And in The Pitt, [those characters] are also speaking Tagalog.”

The work of these Filipinos, and everyone else in the industry who has “worked their butt off” to get to where they are now, has only made him more inspired, more driven, as he embarks on this new role. While he admits he’s seen it hasn’t been easy for Filipinos to make their mark in the industry in the past, he’s optimistic now. Because after everything, JB believes, “we have made strides.”