Sepideh Moafi on Bringing Dr. Al-Hashimi's Hidden World to Life in The Pitt

The Pitt has given audiences one of its most compelling new characters in Dr. Samira Al-Hashimi. Played with remarkable depth and restraint by Sepideh Moafi, she arrives at the Pittsburgh trauma center as a confident and accomplished doctor whose carefully controlled exterior conceals a lifetime of experiences, responsibilities, and vulnerabilities.

For Moafi, stepping into the role came with an unusual symmetry. Just as Al-Hashimi is navigating her first day at the hospital, Moafi herself was thrust into her first day on set with little warning.

"We were walking on parallel paths," Moafi explains. "It was her first day, it was my first day."

After being cast, the actress had only a brief window to prepare before production accelerated her start date. Following an intensive personal retreat and a crash course in medical training, she found herself immersed in the controlled chaos that defines The Pitt. Yet rather than trying to master every aspect of emergency medicine overnight, Moafi focused on what she does best as an actor: understanding the emotional and psychological architecture of the character.

"I could just really immerse myself in the headspace and the heart space," she says. "You do the research, you read the books, you talk to doctors, and then you have to let go and trust the magic that shows up for you on set."

That trust became especially important when exploring the many layers that make Al-Hashimi such a distinctive presence within the hospital.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Al-Hashimi is the way her medical condition informs every aspect of her worldview. Having lived with temporal lobe epilepsy since childhood, she understands healthcare not only as a physician but also as a patient.

"She lives in close proximity to her own mortality," Moafi says.

That experience deepens her empathy, particularly when interacting with patients facing uncertainty and fear. Al-Hashimi understands what it means to be examined, questioned, and treated by doctors because she has spent much of her life in that position herself.

But the character's history extends far beyond her diagnosis. Moafi built an extensive backstory that explores Al-Hashimi's mixed Iranian and Iraqi heritage, her work as a humanitarian physician abroad, and the profound influence of her family.

Central to that history is her relationship with her mother, whose own ambitions were sacrificed to care for her family. In Moafi's vision of the character, Al-Hashimi's mother gave up a prestigious academic opportunity in order to support her husband and raise their children. That history creates a powerful sense of responsibility that drives everything Al-Hashimi does.

"She doesn't just think about herself and her own mission," Moafi says. "It's also her mom's."

Rather than existing as exposition, these details live beneath the surface of the performance. Moafi describes them as the connective tissue that "carbonates" the character's inner life, giving weight and meaning to every interaction even when none of that history is explicitly spoken aloud.

One of the most impactful storylines throughout the season centers on Al-Hashimi's breakthrough seizures.

Rather than depicting the more dramatic seizure types frequently portrayed on television, The Pitt chose to explore temporal lobe seizures, which can manifest in subtle ways that often go unnoticed by those around the individual experiencing them. Moafi spent extensive time researching the condition, consulting specialists and studying footage of patients to ensure the portrayal was accurate. The response from viewers has been deeply meaningful.

"The overwhelming number of people who have reached out and talked about how much that has meant to them," she says, has been remarkable.

Some viewers told her they had never seen their own experiences represented onscreen before. One individual even recognized symptoms in himself after watching the series and decided to seek medical advice.

"It's crazy how impactful this kind of visibility and representation actually is," Moafi says.

The storyline also allowed her to explore the emotional reality behind the condition. While Al-Hashimi is highly intelligent and pragmatic, the possibility that her seizures could affect her career introduces fears she has spent years suppressing. As the day progresses and the seizures continue, the character is forced to confront vulnerabilities she would rather keep hidden.

Much of Al-Hashimi's emotional journey unfolds through her evolving relationship with Noah Wyle's Dr. Robby. Initially, the two physicians struggle to understand one another. Their professional disagreements create friction, but beneath the surface, Moafi believes Al-Hashimi recognizes something familiar in Robbie.

By the time Al-Hashimi reveals her condition to Robby, she is doing something profoundly difficult: allowing herself to be vulnerable with a colleague. The scene became one of the most challenging moments she played all season. Rather than releasing emotion, the challenge was containing it—holding years of fear, shame, and uncertainty just beneath the surface.

"It's harder," she says. "In life, we spend most of our time hiding."

Part of what made Al-Hashimi resonate so strongly with audiences were the subtle character choices scattered throughout the season. Whether it's a comforting touch on a patient's shoulder, a hand gently touching someone's hair during a moment of crisis, or her tendency to unknowingly invade personal space, these details reveal aspects of her personality that words never could. Many of those moments emerged organically through collaboration with executive producer and director John Wells. Moafi credits Wells' sensitivity and intuition as a filmmaker for helping shape some of the character's most memorable interactions.

"He has a strong point of view. He's collaborative. He's open," she says.

The result is a character whose compassion often manifests physically rather than verbally, a woman who understands that sometimes comfort isn't something you say but something you quietly offer.

By the end of the season, Al-Hashimi finds herself at a crossroads. After revealing her condition and receiving a response from Robbie that feels more punitive than supportive, she is left questioning both her professional future and her ability to trust others.

The closing scene, in which she declines her ex-husband's offer of help after experiencing car trouble, perfectly encapsulates the ongoing struggle between the fiercely independent adult she has become and the vulnerable child who still longs to be cared for. Even though the conversation didn’t make it to the final cut, it remained embedded in the emotion of what we see on screen.

"The kid just wants to be held," Moafi says. "And then there's the adult that's like, 'I need to manage this. I need to figure out what's next.'"

While the season leaves Al-Hashimi in a difficult place emotionally, Moafi remains optimistic about where the character goes next.

"I have no doubt that she'll rise even stronger from it."

For an actor who has often portrayed expressive and emotionally open characters, the opportunity to inhabit someone as tightly controlled as Al-Hashimi proved especially rewarding.

"I've played characters who are very extroverted and expressive," Moafi reflects. "Playing a character that is zipped up for most of the time was so fun and challenging and deeply gratifying."

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