“The Pitt ”Star Taylor Dearden Says She Plays Her Character Dr. Mel King as 'Genuinely Asexual'
“The Pitt ”Star Taylor Dearden Says She Plays Her Character Dr. Mel King as 'Genuinely Asexual'
Brenton BlanchetWed, March 25, 2026 at 8:47 PM UTC
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Taylor Dearden in 'The Pitt'Credit: Warrick Page/HBO Max -
Taylor Dearden revealed that she sees her The Pitt character as "genuinely asexual" and not romantic
The actress, who plays Dr. Mel King in the medical drama, told Glamour that, still, "what I’ve envisioned may not be the direction they want to go"
"That flirtation, romance, that aspect is not really a part of her," she said
Taylor Dearden is opening up about what's in store for Dr. Mel King romantically.
Dearden, who plays Mel on HBO's hit medical drama The Pitt, revealed to Glamour that she's not particularly looped in on her character's sexuality or love life, but she's open to what that all may look like.
"The truth is I don’t know…. We have to keep some stuff open because we don’t know where the writers want to take the story," Dearden, 33, told the outlet in an interview published on March 20. "What I’ve envisioned may not be the direction they want to go."
She added, "But for me, I always saw Mel as someone who is not romantic — as actually genuinely asexual — and friendship is the most important thing for her. That flirtation, romance, that aspect is not really a part of her, but it’s also hard to make that decision without consulting the writers and seeing what direction they want to go in."
Taylor Dearden in 'The Pitt'Credit: Warrick Page/MAX
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That approach, Dearden added, is "how I’ve always envisioned Mel and how I’ve played her."
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"Hopefully loose enough that I can change course if need be," she said. "I think everything for Mel is connection to people and being friends and having true companionship, which I don’t think needs to be romantic."
Elsewhere in the interview, Dearden shared why she believes she’s one of the "least recognized" actors from the series, sharing that her "hair throws people off a lot" since its darker on screen. "I get away with a lot more anonymity than everyone else because everyone looks the exact same outside of the show, but dolled up; they look like a glamorous version of their characters," Dearden said, adding that she sometimes even goes unrecognized by her costars.
"Even on set, we’ll be waiting to rehearse a trauma scene and the director will say, 'We’re just waiting for Taylor to come down,' and I’ll be right there in front of them," she added. "They always go, 'Oh God. Yeah, sorry.' It’s just like, 'That’s all right. We’ll figure this out.' I don’t know if that’s going to sustain, but I can get away with a lot."
The Pitt also stars Noah Wyle, Patrick Ball and Katherine LaNasa, and follows a group of workers at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center through a 15-hour shift. After Dearden debuted with the show's original cast in 2025's first season, she reprised her role for season 2, which is currently airing. As she told PEOPLE, she felt more comfortable on the set this time around, after learning "how the trauma scenes would go."
"The first time we were like, 'We have no idea or any context of how this is supposed to go or anything,'" she said in January.
New episodes of The Pitt season 2 air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
