Isa Briones embraces Filipino roots as Trinity Santos in 'The Pitt'

Filipino-American actress Isa Briones is making waves as Dr. Trinity Santos in "The Pitt," the award-winning medical series that boasts of a multicultural cast of characters.

The show reflects a reality in many hospitals in the United States: three Filipinos—including two nurses—among the staff, and that's just in the Emergency Department of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.

Isa, the daughter of veteran theater actor Jon Jon Briones, carries the Philippine flag along with Kristin Villanueva and Amielynn Abellera, who play seasoned nurses Princess Dela Cruz and Perlah Alawi.

"All three of us, we get to show the spectrum of what it is to be Asian, what it is to be Filipino, there's no one way that it looks or sounds or feels or lives, you know. It is everything," Isa told Filipino reporters in a virtual round table interview.

"There is so little representation for Filipino health care workers in medical shows until now, and now we have 'The Pitt and St. Dennis' which is really awesome," she said.

Aside from their quintessential Filipino names, the three characters show different aspects of the Filipino identity. Princess speaks Tagalog with the accent of a native speaker. Trinity sang a Hiligaynon lullaby for an infant patient. Perlah is Muslim and wears a hijab. It's Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao represented on screen.

"There’s something special about this because we're also branching out of Tagalog. We're involving even more parts of the Philippines. We are inviting everyone in, and it's such a special special thing to kind of do as much representation as possible in the little moments that we have," Isa said.

She said it's a collaborative effort between the production and the actors when it comes to adding little touches of Filipino culture to their scenes.

"Whenever there's kind of a specifically Filipino storyline or line or anything, they're usually kind of asking like, 'Is this OK? Would you say something else?'" she said.

"It was just so cool to have that kind of free reign to be like, 'How would our lived experience inform this?'"

Trinity, Princess, and Perlah occasionally speak Tagalog lines to each other in the show.

"Me and Amielynn, we can say some things, like we know some phrases, but we are not fluent speakers. And so Kristin was helping us out a lot, but then in Season 2 we actually got a Filipino language/Tagalog consultant, Angelita," Isa said. "It takes a community and we get to all have our input."

The actress said she is proud to play a Filipino character in a series that is enjoying popular success, especially after watching her own father struggling for years to make it work as an immigrant actor.

"To be a series regular on a hit show is more than my wildest dreams," she said. "And then to get to acknowledge who I am, what is a huge part of me, what is a huge part of my family, in something that is so mainstream, that is not just niche... that's really special."

She also reflects on what it means for her father to see the reactions of Filipinos who have watched the show.

"I think sometimes there's a bit of a guilt, with leaving your home country and I think it can be kind of a mental, I don't know, war, like, 'Oh, have I betrayed something in me? Have I left this behind?'" Isa said.

"And I think seeing me get to bridge that gap and get to accept all sides of me and my background, I think was very special moment for him like, 'Oh we're still a part of this.' Like, we're bringing our culture through, we are bringing it into where we've immigrated to. It's very, very special."

For Isa, it's exciting to see more Filipino stories being told in Hollywood.

"There's more people behind the scenes, Filipinos as writers, as directors, as DPs. That is what has risen and I'm so thankful for that because it's really, like, wonderful to see a Filipino on screen, but if we're not telling our own stories, then who is? And I think that's been the coolest kind of progress of it all," she said.

"There's so many stories to tell. There's obviously historic ones, but there's also just Filipinos living life and it doesn't have to necessarily be a Filipino story, but it's a universal story, but it's told by Filipinos," she added. "We all need to be able to share our stories and I hope that audiences continue to be open to that, and wanting to learn more about what they don't know, about people they don’t know."

"The Pitt" stars Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Taylor Dearden, Patrick Ball, Shawn Hatosy, Fiona Dourif, Supriya Ganesh, Gerran Howell, Shabana Azeez, and more. Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on HBO Max. —CDC, GMA News