'The Pitt' Star Shabana Azeez on Dr. Javadi's TikTok Stardom and Breaking Stereotypes in Season 2

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Published Jan 30, 2026, 10:00 AM EST

Perri Nemiroff is the 2025 Press Award winner at the ICG Publicists Awards.

She's the senior producer at Collider where she hosts and produces the interview series, Collider Ladies Night, a show geared towards highlighting the need-to-know female voices in film and television.

On top of that, Perri frequently moderates post-screening Q&As and panels at film festivals and conventions including San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, and can be seen on the big screen in the Noovie pre-show segment, Close-up with Perri Nemiroff. She’s also a Top Critic on Rotten Tomatoes, a proud member of the Critics Choice Association and is a Gold Derby Expert.

Perri splits her time between Los Angeles and New York. Wherever the film and television coverage takes her, she goes!

Summary

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with The Pitt star Shabana Azeez.
During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Azeez recapped her road to the hit HBO series.
She also takes a close look at Dr. Javadi’s Season 2 storyline, including her contentious relationship with her mother, her rivalry with Ogilvie, and being a TikTok star.

Shabana Azeez’s Dr. Victoria Javadi is still finding her footing in many ways at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center ER, but The Pitt Season 2, Episode 4, “10:00 A.M.,” just revealed that she has an especially strong voice elsewhere — on TikTok.

In Episode 2, we met a woman (Elysia Roorbach) who accidentally used superglue to apply her lashes. In Episode 4, when Langdon (Patrick Ball) can’t get her out the door fast enough, she insists on seeing the “best doctor in Pittsburgh,” a doctor going by the name Dr. J on TikTok. Turns out, Dr. Javadi is a megastar on MedTok.

While one might be quick to label it a light and fun Episode 4 storyline, this new layer of Dr. Javadi’s world has loads to say about her, and also about the nature of social media apps and the inaccessibility of academia.

Shabana Azeez Wants to Make Sure Dr. Javadi Maintains Her Girlhood

“She's on TikTok, she's on Tumblr, she's on A03, and she can save your life.”

While on Collider Ladies Night, Azeez took a moment to explain what put Dr. Javadi on the TikTok path. “She lives on the internet, as a lot of people of her generation do.” She continued:

“Also, she was raised during COVID. I think people don't think about the social impact of growing up during COVID and being in your formative years. So, the internet isn't an inauthentic space for her.”

Now that Dr. Javadi is a certified TikTok star, Azeez is especially eager to use the storyline to turn widespread assumptions about the app on their head. She explained:

“I think particularly with young women, we can go, ‘Oh, she's on TikTok probably sharing her outfits and other such things that we've decided are insignificant or vapid or shallow or whatever.’ I think that's sort of people's first reaction, a lot of people, and I'm really excited to play with that expectation because I very much am not interested in creating a character who's not like the other girls. Javadi’s exactly like the other girls. She loves purple. We see that in Season 2. She loves Olivia Rodrigo. She loves pop music. She loves glossy American teen shows. And she's really smart. Not ‘but’ — ‘and.’ She's on TikTok, she's on Tumblr, she's on A03, and she can save your life.”

Azeez also touched on how this storyline contributes to crafting an arc for Javadi that addresses sexism regarding authority figures.

“I think that’s really important for me moving forward is that, as she progresses as a character, we don't lose her girlhood or we don't make her socially acceptable as an authority figure. I think so many women of generations past have had to perform masculinity to be taken seriously. The shape of the sexism, I think was, ‘Well, this woman is now a man, so then she can have a seat at the table.’ And I think that what happens is we’re still maligning femininity and overvaluing masculinity. I think for Gen Z, that's not the case anymore. I think that she can be feminine and girly and smart and worth your time, worth being here.”

"It Felt Ridiculous at the Time": 'The Pitt's Taylor Dearden Revisits Her Initial Thoughts on the Now Iconic Megan Thee Stallion Scene

While on Collider Ladies Night, Dearden breaks down 'The Pitt's one-of-a-kind production process, the Mel and Langdon connection, and more!

What Is Dr. Javadi’s Main Goal for Her TikTok?

"With the tiny amount of power she has as an individual person, she's going to use it."

Sepideh Moafi, Gerran Howell, Shabana Azeez, and Irene Choi in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 2

Dr. Javadi turning to social media to share her expertise speaks to yet another very real problem plaguing academia — gatekeepers.

When asked for Dr. Javadi’s top priorities with her TIkTok account, Azeez said she just wants it to make people’s day a bit better, but “not in a way that's comfortable.” Dr. Javadi isn’t looking to entertain. She’s looking to put this technology to good use.

“I think she’s going, which I relate to, ‘This is technology. It's neither inherently evil or inherently good, and it's up to us what we do with it. If we let it brain rot our brains, that would be what it does.’”

With those goals, Dr. Javadi is essentially taking those gatekeepers head-on.

“Academia is not accessible to the masses. Academia has been gatekept from people of color and women and literally almost everybody else in so many ways for so long. Social media is accessible. When we often democratize information, we then devalue it. And there is so much misinformation on the apps, and it's a real problem, and our governments should do something about that. But, with the tiny amount of power she has as an individual person, she's going to use it.”

Looking for even more from Azeez on The Pitt Season 2, and her journey to the highly acclaimed HBO Max series? You can find just that in our full Collider Ladies Night conversation below: