27-year-old actor Supriya Ganesh played Dr. Samira Mohan on The Pitt — the addictive HBO Max medical drama which has one asexual and two seemingly-queer women characters in it (you know the ones). Although unfortunately neither of those two seemingly-queer women characters are Dr. Samira Mohan, you will be pleased to learn on this very day that Supriya Ganesh herself is queer, and uses she/they pronouns.
In an interview with Variety, Ganesh, who is currently starring in House of India at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, talked about her acting career and her gender, explaining that her choice of pronouns reflects her relationship to her own queerness as well her race. After being born in the U.S to Indian parents and moving back to India at the age of three, and then back to the U.S. for college, they were shocked by the restrictive ideas around gender in the U.S compared to India, where “you have the existence of a third gender,” explaining:
[in India] is a little more fluidity in how men present themselves, women present themselves. So I think coming here, I felt this instinctive need to want to react against it, which I think is interesting because I feel like a lot of the times I do present as pretty femme. But there are a couple of times where I’m existing outside of that, and I don’t always totally feel like I’m fitting into what I think is a very white-conceived perception of femininity. So that was a decision I think I made about a year and a half ago, actually influenced by Lily Gladstone in her decision to adopt she/they pronouns in acknowledgement of third-spirit people and some two-spirit people, I think that was a moment where I felt really seen, where I was like, “Oh, yeah, I don’t need to fit into this.” Even though I feel like I identify a lot more with femininity, that doesn’t mean I always fit into what is a very Western idea of it. So I think that was why I made that decision. It also feels like a little bit of a shout-out, being like, “Hey, I’m queer. See me.” I feel like sometimes I pass really well. I also want queer brown women to look at me and know that that’s someone they can turn to and relate to.
[On her instagram story today, Ganesh amended the interview, saying she meant to say “third gender and two-spirit people” rather than “third spirit people and two-spirit people.”]
They told Variety that they aim for authenticity in their work, with an overarching goal of making art and existing in art for other South Asian people, adding:
I just think especially in this generation of Gen Z, which I’m so happy to be a part of, I think that we see so much more queerness and fluidity even with all the restrictions that are happening — and there are so many that I am so frustrated by and angry about — I think people are able to express themselves a little bit more because at least there is this social acceptance, if not a legal acceptance. At least, it’s getting pushed a little bit more. And I just think that’s really beautiful, and I hope more people feel freer to accept themselves wherever on the spectrum that they may lie.
The Pitt isn’t their first role on a medical show — they also played a patient in a 2021 episode of New Amsterdam and a 2023 episode of Chicago Med. They also have an academic background in medicine, having gone to Columbia University pre-med and majored in nueroscience. Despite choosing a career-oriented academic journey, she always harbored a desire to act. She was still working as an MCAT tutor (she got a 99th percentile score on her own MCATs) when she was hired for The Pitt.
Unfortunately they did not have any particular scoop regarding Season Two of The Pitt, besides that it will be set on the weekend of July 4th on Langdon’s first day back. But she hopes to see more of Samira’s personal life, having established Samira’s loneliness and work-focused attitude. We are eager to witness more medical drama on our new favorite medical drama starring our new favorite pre-med student/actor Supriya Ganesh.
yay queer brown culturally rooted representation!