Where Supriya Ganesh Goes, We Will Follow

All month long, Bustle’s annual The Entertainers Issue is celebrating the performers and creators who lit up our screens and beyond in 2026.

Upon The Pitt’s debut last year, Supriya Ganesh’s Dr. Samira Mohan became a fast fan favorite — a stand-in for the kind of doctor you’d hope to have by your side in the chaos of the ER. One who took her time (even more than her boss might like!) and, above all, cared for the community she served. When it was announced that Ganesh’s character would be written off the show after Season 2, that care was returned with an outpouring of love — and a little indignation, too — from fans.

“Honestly, I was really shocked,” Ganesh (who uses both she and they pronouns) says of the response. “I was so sad to leave the show. I love the cast, I love the crew on The Pitt. Like, they’re just amazing people. And it was sad but also exciting that my time had come to an end. I knew people would be upset, but I didn’t expect it to become such a big thing. It’s been a moment for me to realize that how much I loved Samira really showed in the work, and I think a lot of people loved her too because of that.”

Ganesh may be turning in her scrubs, but the actor is by no means hitting pause. This summer, they joined the star-studded cast of Netflix’s 13 Going on 30 reboot. (“I really love the script. I thought it was so sweet,” she teases. “And it was just such a fun set to be on.”) As we chat, the 28-year-old is also in the middle of attending shows during New York Fashion Week. But behind the glam, Ganesh has been refreshingly candid about what it looks like when your life goes from fairly contained — a former pre-med student, they were still tutoring students for the MCAT when The Pitt began — to being, well, famous: like when Ganesh tweeted the eye-popping behind-the-scenes math of what a fellow newcomer like Inde Navarrette might have to spend just to promote her movie.

She’s setting up a more compassionate blueprint for existing as a young actor — and, in a broader way, handling life’s pivots with grace. “There’s still times where I’ll step out of a car at an event, and I’ll hear people screaming, and I’ll be like, ‘What are they screaming at? I want to see too!’ And my publicist will have to be like, ‘It’s you, girl. Wave!’” she says with a laugh. “I think if anyone else ends up in this position, really be gentle with yourself — because even though your life is changing so much, sometimes it takes time for your brain to catch up to that. And that’s OK. No one has it figured out.”

On embracing Saturn’s return:

I think there’s something especially crazy with Saturn happening this year — I’m coming out as an astrology nerd, I guess — where it’s going retrograde. So because of that, my Saturn return is longer. Everyone’s scared of a Saturn return, but I actually think it’s good. Change is really beautiful. It was great seeing how many people care about this character, and obviously I’m so sad that my time with her has come to an end because I really love Samira — but it’s also been really great making new connections and doing other projects and really expanding myself artistically.

On her hopes for Dr. Mohan:

I think she’s maybe found a way to get back into the racial disparity research that she was doing in Season 1. I mean, the show is definitely true to form in that a lot of that has been defunded — but maybe somehow she found a spot where she’s able to follow through with that. She is someone who perseveres no matter what. So I do think that she’s going to figure out a way to make that happen, one way or another.

On viewers’ enduring love for #Mohabbot:

I think there are a lot of people who see themselves in Samira and Abbot [played by Shawn Hatosy] — people who really throw themselves into their work and are just completely bereft in other areas. And even though Abbot and Samira are so different, there is this connection there. People really responded to that and saw how it could work. It’s honestly just been all fun, and Shawn’s so great. We’re supposed to talk soon. He was like, “I need to catch you up!” Because I think he just directed an episode on the show.

On finding a Pitt mentor:

One of the greatest things the show has given me is people who I can ask advice from. Especially someone like Sepideh [Moafi, who plays Dr. Al-Hashimi] — she’s just so incredible and is such a great mentor to me. I do feel that with so many of the women on the cast, period. But we’re really similar in terms of how we like to approach art, and she’s had a career that I really admire. What a blessing to be able to ask someone what it felt like to be in these positions, and what it feels like moving through. Especially as a woman of color — how many people are there who’ve been in these positions, and you can ask them questions? She’s such an advocate for women, for important humanitarian causes. And with her Emmy nomination, I’m just so happy for her — and everyone in the cast, that they get to be celebrated in this way.

On sharing her experience with gender dysphoria:

I wrote most of that in two days. Sometimes as an actor, people want you to be mouthpieces for their ideas — and obviously, for the right idea, I’m happy to be a mouthpiece. I remember once sitting in a trailer, and I was just like, Damn, I really miss math. Like, I just miss thinking! And so I think writing that essay really made me realize I have so much busy brain power that I just need to channel somewhere. So I’ve just been writing for fun, seeing what comes out.

On puzzles:

I did a play, and we’d do these crazy puzzles together. One of them was a 5,000-piece puzzle of The Starry Night, which was as hard as you’d think. And I actually have been getting better about it this year — where if I find myself having too much busy brain time, and I need to expend that energy somewhere, I’ll just get a really complicated puzzle.

I think my next frontier is going to be blank puzzles — like, a totally blank puzzle. It’s just white. I found out about it because a friend got this puzzle as a gift from someone else, and I was like, “Does this person hate you? Why would they give you that?” Maybe I hate myself, and I’m just gonna gift myself that puzzle. In a way, when you go through a puzzle, it is really uncomfortable: I don’t know what all these pieces are, and I don’t know how they fit into each other. But eventually, it all comes together.