Star of hit medical drama The Pitt opens up about their experience with gender dysphoria

Apr 17
Written by Emily Maskell

Supriya Ganesh stars as Dr Samira Mohan in The Pitt. (Warrick Page/HBO Max)

The Pitt star Supriya Ganesh has opened up about her experience with gender dysphoria in a new open essay. This comes after Ganesh shared that they are queer and use she/they pronouns.

The 28-year-old actor, who plays the much-loved Dr Samira Mohan on the popular HBO medical drama, has recently departed from the show. The news was heartbreaking for fans.

The Pitt follows the staff of an emergency department as they cope with the high-pressure scenarios of a 15-hour work shift. Each episode, set in real time, covers approximately one hour of the work shift.

The show introduces Dr Mohan as a third-year medical resident trying to find a balance between diligence and speed. Ganesh’s character was a fan favourite.

Since the news broke, Ganesh has been in the spotlight. But now, Ganesh has penned an open essay for Vulture, in which she reflects on her experiences with gender dysphoria.

She remembers a specific moment when she was asked at a bar if she was a man or a woman.

“I noticed his partner for the first time sitting across from him, stifling laughter, and realized that I — or, rather, what was in my pants — had apparently been a topic of discussion between them for some time,” Ganesh wrote.

“I sat in silence for the rest of the night, dissecting the interaction and my body.”

Ganesh outlines that this was part of the gender dysphoria she experienced when she moved from India to the US as an 18- year-old.

“I’d never questioned my gender before I came to America,” she also continued. “Growing up in India, I’d always identified as a girl.

‘I realized I was queer in middle school.’

“I grew up among Sikh women who didn’t tame their body hair, men who would hold hands platonically with their male friends, and children who cross-dressed for play (almost every boy had a photo of himself dressed up as a girl by his mother for fun).”

“Though femininity in India always felt accessible, I did still question my sexuality — I realized I was queer in middle school when I developed an obsessive crush on a friend.”

Ganesh outlined that they found “that the South Asian subcontinent had a long history of queerness.”

“Interestingly, I also noticed how incredibly fluid gender was depicted. Hindu myths frequently describe gods switching between gender personas or combining into a third-gender composite.”

The actor furthered that they felt “increasingly disconnected” from their body. “I would chemically straighten my curls, contemplate a nose job, and get waxed on a schedule I took more seriously than some of my classes, so that I wouldn’t be the ungroomed, hairy brown girl.”

However, Ganesh outlines a change came when they “eventually (and thankfully) found community with other queer people my sophomore year.

“We talked openly about experiencing gender dysphoria, how we perform our genders to the world around us, and where the performance fails. I grew more lax with my body hair, played around with my natural texture, dropped the barre classes for weight lifting, and started experimenting with menswear.”

“I am grateful to the queer artists and writers of color who’ve allowed me to understand my experience of the world and saved me from hermeneutical injustice, which they likely had to face on their own.”