You might have noticed the internet’s obsession with Jesse Van Horn, a nurse who’s part of the sprawling ensemble that makes up one of the best medical shows of the last decade: HBO Max’s The Pitt. From his somewhat cranky attitude to his punk-rock piercings and salt-and-pepper locks, actor Ned Brower has been a welcome presence on the show, even picking up more lines and screen time in a currently airing (and still excellent) second season.
It might surprise fans to find out Brower is actually a registered nurse in real life. He still picks up shifts around his shooting schedule on what health care calls a per diem basis, treating real patients — sometimes, even legendary actors, who recognize him from the show. “I wouldn’t have even been on this show if I wasn’t a real nurse,” he tells Yahoo over Zoom from Los Angeles, a few days after wrapping his last day on the set of The Pitt’s second season. “Some of the most iconic actors that you know came to work and were like, ‘Hey, are you on The Pitt?’”
Of course, Brower is bound by confidentiality and can’t reveal who those actors are. What he did share was his unique trajectory to a viral fan favorite on The Pitt. Having gone to film school, he spent the early 2000s playing surfers or stoners in small roles — like in a three-episode arc on Dawson’s Creek back in 2001 — on top of some modeling gigs. But his career really took off as a musician: He was the drummer in Rooney, an alternative rock band that Jimmy Iovine signed to Interscope Records in 2002. You might recognize their catchy breakout 2009 single, “When Did Your Heart Go Missing?”, which has 46 million streams on Spotify and was featured in Gossip Girl. “That took us on a 12-year journey,” he explains. “But when it ended, it was just kind of over.”
In the aftermath of the band’s whirlwind success, Brower began considering working in a new field, especially as he started a family with his wife, Brothers & Sisters actress Sarah Jane Morris. “I wanted the peace of mind of having a job that I could build on and have some stability,” he says. “I also felt like so many of my friends are in music and work in film and TV. … I didn’t want to feel this pressure of comparing myself to other people in my peer group.”
Brower first began working as an EMT, responding to 911 calls and attending to medical emergencies. In his two years in that role, he became well-acquainted with the medical community of L.A., meeting nurses at hospitals around the city. He also noticed many of his colleagues — ex-military types — were training to become firefighters, a profession he wasn’t as keen to enter.
The flexible schedule of nursing was calling him, though, and he felt a kinship with nurses he met who sported tattoos and piercings, fellow punk rockers who may have been in bands themselves. At that point — after noting the need for nurses, a profession currently in the midst of a staffing crisis — he took the plunge and enrolled at UCLA to get his master’s in nursing. “It was the best thing I ever did,” he admits.
Brower (right) with bandmate Taylor Locke during his rock star days. (Barry King/WireImage)
(Barry King via Getty Images)
Brower graduated in time for a pandemic, throwing him right into the thick of the action. Despite still performing on the side while getting his degree, the world of live gigs came to a screeching halt in 2020. He actually found himself busier than ever during that time, in scrubs rather than on a stage. “Trial by fire in the ER,” he reminisces. “Then as the arts came back, I’ve been able to go back and still play music again and make records, and now act again.”
The opportunity of The Pitt came around serendipitously. Brower hadn’t worked in TV and film since his 20s, but he had still been performing in one way or another — like in a Fleetwood Mac musical comedy stage show he’s been a part of for 13 years. It was actually a doctor at work who approached him about the show, and he happened to know some of the writers and producers. They specifically were hoping to find an actor who’s a professional nurse and would slip into the medical choreography with ease — a role practically made for Brower. And although there’s a team of medical professionals that monitors the show for accuracy, he did speak up early in the first season to ensure consistency with what he sees in the emergency room, contributing to the show’s reputation as one of the most accurate scripted medical shows in television history.
Brower says returning to acting for this role in particular was a smooth transition compared to the performance he’d already delivered in the early days of nursing. “Often when I was a new nurse, I felt imposter syndrome,” he admits. “When you’re new, you’re trying to learn with real patients, but you don’t want them to know that you’re new. I got a late start, so I could hide that. But I often felt like I was acting — playing the part of a nurse at my real nursing job.”
Compared to most medical dramas, The Pitt embodies the breaking down of silos between professions more so than something like Grey’s Anatomy, which has never had a nurse as a regular cast member in its 22-season run. This is why Brower loves working in emergency so much, too: “You really work more shoulder to shoulder and there’s less of a hierarchy,” he says. “The doctors rely on the nurses so much — not only to do the patient care, but also as their eyes and ears.”
And what about those Nurse Jesse TikToks? “So, I know that exists … but I don’t seek that stuff out too much,” he humbly concedes. “It feels great, but I don’t want to get in my own head in any way. When I go to work on the show, I almost don’t think: We’re making a show.” He says he’s not quite Jesse in real life, by the way: His character is more experienced and “grouchier,” even sarcastic and rude at times, while he identifies as more upbeat and extroverted.
Brower and his actress wife, Sarah Jane Morris, last April. (Robin L Marshall/Getty Images)
(Robin L Marshall via Getty Images)
Brower’s life is too full to dwell on fancams and edits, anyway. He credits strong relationships with his friends and family as what keep him healthy and happy in his late 40s, between bike rides to work and keeping the yard tidy. His winding journey through the arts and into health care informs his advice back to younger actors trying to find their own place in the industry: to seek out stability and flexibility to allow you to loosen your grip on the arts and embrace a more organic creative drive. “My life doesn’t end when this job ends, and it will end one day.”
“I think more than anything, [the TikTok edits] are a testament to how popular the show is and how big the audience is,” Brower says. “That even a small side character like mine gets attention.”
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