‘The Pitt’ Star Taylor Dearden Is Neurodivergent: How She Incorporated This Into Her TV Character
Learn how her character Dr. Melissa "Mel" King was inspired by Dearden's own experiences
Key Takeaways
- Taylor Dearden is neurodivergent, similar to her character on 'The Pitt,' Dr. Mel King.
- Taylor Dearden was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and later opened up about it for 'The Pitt'.
- 'The Pitt' writers wanted to create a neurodivergent character that wasn't stereotypical.
Taylor Dearden is instantly recognized for her role as Dr. Melissa “Mel” King on the award-winning medical drama, The Pitt. The character she portrays exhibits traits that coincide with someone who is neurodivergent. Although not explicitly diagnosed on the series, Dr. Mel King’s neurodivergent-coded traits include self-soothing, hyperfocusing and social nuance differences.
While these traits were specifically crafted to create a character reflecting a realistic, non-stereotypical professional with autism, the actress shared that some of those traits come directly from her.
“I’m on the ADHD spectrum so I gave myself advice in the mirror,” Dearden shared of how she incorporated her own experience into the character.
Learn more about what neurodivergence is and how Dearden brought her own experience to the medical drama.
What is neurodivergence?
The definition for the term “describes people whose brains develop or work differently for some reason. This means the person has different strengths and struggles from people whose brains develop or work more typically.”
For someone who is neurodivergent, it is possible that they have another medical condition, but it is also possible there hasn’t been another diagnosis or identified condition. The term neurodivergent isn’t a medical term. Rather, it is a word that comes from the related “neurodiversity,” which was coined by Australian sociologist Judy Singer in 1988 to recognize that everyone’s brains develop uniquely.
There are several medical conditions that a neurodivergent person can have. However, since neurodivergent isn’t an actual medical term, many other conditions can fall under this umbrella as well. Some of the most well known conditions related to neurodivergence include Autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, Down syndrome and dyslexia, among others.
Taylor Dearden’s neurodivergent experience
As for the actress, Dearden has begun opening up about her own neurodivergent experience in correlation to her character on The Pitt. Dearden herself was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and is now portraying a character with a similar experience. The actress and showrunners wanted to bring awareness to this characteristic and portray neurodivergent individuals in a nonjudgemental and realistic way.
“Neurodivergence is continually being misunderstood and judged on the outside without ever showing anything on the inside,” Dearden shared in an interview. “It became such a routine type character. ‘Oh, there’s the neurodivergent one.’ They’re mainly there for the comedy of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time without really getting into why we say the wrong thing at the wrong time or how hard it is; how much we want to get along in neurotypical society.”
As for what it’s been like to participate in a fast-paced medical drama as a neurodivergent herself, Dearden says it’s not always so easy.
“It’s a very tough show for neurodivergents to be in,” Dearden shared. “It moves really fast. It’s really hard words. It’s actions we just learned. You have to put all of that together at the same time and as quickly as possible. And we go so quickly, we don’t have much time to take a second to review, to calm down. And so it’s definitely a challenge to shoot.”
How the character came together
Creating the character of Dr. Mel King was not just one writer’s doing. The show actually consulted a developmental and behavioral doctor regarding the character and how to make her more than just stereotypical.
“I suggested that it not be clear whether or not this character knew she was on the spectrum, but that some of these characteristics unfold subtly and naturally, as they do in real life,” Dr. Wendy Ross, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician and the director of the Jefferson Center for Autism & Neurodiversity in Philadelphia shared.
Later, Dearden spoke with the creator and producers about how she could see similarities between the character and herself, which is how she ended up sharing her experience and how Dr. Mel King came to be.
According to Ross, the writers “were very serious about not portraying a stereotypical situation.” Not only does the character of Mel have neurodivergent qualities but she also has a sister with autism, which Dearden believes impacts Mel’s behaviors and learning about her own neurodivergence.
“If you have a sibling who’s more severely on a spectrum, the parents often don’t even notice that their other child is,” Dearden said. “That’s kind of always how I saw it. With a lot of Mel, it’s just kind of unmasking and seeing what that looks like, and then also being like, ‘Wow, I’m kind of glad I mask sometimes.’”
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