'The Pitt' Star Katherine LaNasa on Her Emmy Win and the Career She Almost Walked Away From

There was a time Katherine LaNasa didn't think she'd work as an actress again. Years later, she's an Emmy winner for her role on "The Pitt," and she's candid about everything it took to get there, sobriety, a cancer diagnosis, and decades of near-misses.

Katherine LaNasa took quite the winding road back to where her career is today. The actress, who earned an Emmy for her role as charge nurse Dana Evans on HBO Max's "The Pitt" in 2025 and snagged a second nomination this year, even once thought her acting career was over.

Katherine LaNasa accepting the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series award for "The Pitt" onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 14, 2025 | Source: Getty Images

Back at a time when LaNasa was living in Atlanta with her husband, Grant Show, who was then filming the “Dynasty” reboot, she was in a career lull, and she wanted to keep her acting skills sharp. So she auditioned for a local improv troupe, only to be told she needed to audition for a chance to be trained for a year first. "I really did not think I was going to work anymore," LaNasa admitted to Vanity Fair in a new interview.

That rejection came at a time when the actress was also struggling with depression and drinking, which forced her to seek treatment. Now five years sober, LaNasa says, "I had a lot of feelings that I was probably covering up with drinking that needed to come up," adding her sobriety has given her a sense of calm.

But just as she overcame that difficult chapter, LaNasa was faced with a new one. In 2023, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. "Cancer is a real head trip any way you slice it," she admits, but she also sees that experience as a blessing in disguise, saying, "Really, I think I'm a better person because of cancer."

This transformation and the confidence she gained from overcoming her challenges became the foundation for LaNasa’s approach to her role in “The Pitt.” But even after the show became a hit, she had her reservations and fears. She wasn’t sure her character would be back for the second season, given Dana was on the verge of quitting the ER by the end of the first season.

"I was really hoping they wouldn't fire me," she told The Hollywood Reporter early this year. "I'm in my 50s, I finally got on something that really took off — please don't let go of me now."

LaNasa had done a lot of work to build her character, even studying recordings of local city council meetings with her dialect coach just to develop Dana’s Pittsburgh accent, which she eventually carried even when filming was over.

Being nominated for her portrayal in the show’s pilot season came as a surprise to LaNasa, who took home the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2025. "I was so surprised that I got nominated the first season," she told E! News while attending the 2026 Emmys, where she received a second nomination. Describing her performance that season, she said, "If it was an audition tape, I would have been like, 'Eh, it was okay.'"

"The Pitt" racked up 25 Emmy nominations this year, and LaNasa didn’t end up bringing home the award this time. However, ahead of the ceremony, she said she'd likely be emotional no matter who won, and assured she was already having a great night regardless.

In January, LaNasa reflected on her hits and misses from countless projects before "The Pitt," including one starring role with Billy Bob Thornton and Robert Duvall that she thought would be her big break but bombed. Looking back, she could only say, "It took me a really long time to get here."