How Katherine LaNasa & Her The Pitt Co-Stars Celebrated 'Beautifully Rewarding' Emmy Nominations

"The Pitt" stormed the Emmy nominations for a second year in a row in 2026, cementing its position as the biggest series of the moment. The medical show, which shows a fictional hospital's workday in real time, won five out of 13 Emmy nominations with its debut season in 2025, including outstanding drama series. "The Pitt" had even greater success with 25 award nominations in 2026. How did "The Pitt" cast and crew celebrate such a victory?

Katherine LaNasa, who was nominated for outstanding supporting actress in 2026 after winning that award the year prior, plays Nurse Dana on the show and told ExtraTV the cast had only a brief moment to celebrate their nominations, since they were filming the third season of the show at the time. "So Scott made an announcement and listed off all of the nominations," LaNasa said, referring to the showrunner and creator R. Scott Gemmill. "It was just really joyous, and we were just hugging each other and being with each other ... It's just beautiful, just beautifully rewarding and nice to experience it on set with everyone." LaNasa added later with a laugh, "Then they, you know, put us on a bell and rolled action."

While LaNasa was one of three actors from the medical drama to get nominated for and win Emmys after Season 1 (the others being "The Pitt" stars Noah Wyle and Shawn Hatosy), after Season 2, she was nominated against her co-stars Sepideh Moafi, Fiona Dourif, and Taylor Dearden for the outstanding supporting actress category. Other cast members like Wyle, Hatosy, Patrick Ball, and Gerran Howell were nominated in other categories. Guest stars Jeff Kober, Ernest Harden Jr., Tal Anderson, Brittany Allen, and Tina Ivlev were also nominated for awards.

Katherine LaNasa has been working in the industry since the '90s, so by the 2020s she had given up believing in becoming a famous actor or even getting an Emmy nomination. In fact, in 2024, she was ready to switch careers after returning from an acting break following being treated for breast cancer the year before. "I was living away from Hollywood with cancer and kind of frighteningly unemployed," LaNasa said on BBC Radio 4. "It was a really hard period." LaNasa also told W magazine: "Before I got 'The Pitt,' I didn't know if I was going to work again. I was about to build a structure in my backyard so I could coach acting."

"The Pitt" changed her fate, transforming the stunning LaNasa, who was 58 when the show premiered, into another star who found success later in life like Pedro Pascal, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jane Lynch. "I don't think anyone thought I was going to win," LaNasa told ExtraTV. "My friends threw me a party and I think that the reason for it was so that I could enjoy it, too. It was like, bless her heart, she's not going to win."

But LaNasa defied odds to win the trophy. "The Pitt" star is set to return in the show's third season, and her awards show success seemingly helped her score roles in projects like the action movie "Mister" and the thriller mini-series "Count My Lies," which stars Lindsay Lohan and Shailene Woodley.