Cast and Crew
Season 1, Episode 1
“Pilot”
Format: One-hour scripted series for television
Network: TNT
Premiere: Monday, February 4, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
TV Rating: TV-14-DL
Directed by: Bill D’Elia
Teleplay by: David E. Kelley
Created by: David E. Kelley
Based on the novel by: Sanjay Gupta M.D.
Executive Producers: David E. Kelley
Bill D’Elia
Sanjay Gupta
Produced by: Lewis Abel
Co-Producers: Peter Chomsky
Billy Redner
Music By: Danny Lux
Director of Photography: Colin Watkinson
Production Designer: Peter Politanoff
Edited by: Craig Bench
Casting by: Gary M. Zuckerbrod, C.S.A.
Costume Designer: Lisa Eisler
Starring:
Ving Rhames
Jamie Bamber
Jennifer Finnigan
Bill Irwin
Keong Sim
Sarayu Rao
Emily Swallow
Alfred Molina
Character Descriptions
Dr. Jorge Villanueva
Ving Rhames
Dr. Jorge Villanueva, known as El Gato, is a giant of a man. He is also perhaps the most celebrated trauma chief in the country -- clearly the elephant in this circus. El Gato's seat-of-the-pants diagnoses are the stuff of legend around Chelsea General.
Dr. Harding Hooten
Alfred Molina
Dr. Harding Hooten, the steely-eyed Chief of Staff, speaks softly but carries a massive stick. He was nicknamed "Hardly Human" long ago for his exacting, punishing ways during the weekly morbidity and mortality meetings.
Dr. Tyler Wilson
Jamie Bamber
Dr. Tyler Wilson is a supernova neurosurgeon. When he says something is so, it is so. If he has a god complex, it's well-earned.
Dr. Tina Ridgeway
Jennifer Finnigan
Dr. Tina Ridgeway is a compassionate neurosurgeon willing to fight for cases that may seem like lost causes to others. Her home life in turmoil, she finds refuge at the hospital.
Dr. Buck Tierney
Bill Irwin
Dr. Buck Tierney is the hospital's Chief of Transplantation. A man driven to the point of bullish, he is least liked among the Chelsea General staff.
Dr. Sung Park
Keong Sim
Dr. Sung Park, a Korean-American, is abrupt socially and English-challenged, but he's also ambitious to the core. His searing intensity is palpable.
Dr. Sydney Napur
Sarayu Rao
Dr. Sydney Napur is a cardiothoracic surgeon who's married to the job. A compulsive multi-tasker, she speaks quickly and takes absolutely no prisoners.
Dr. Michelle Robidaux
Emily Swallow
Dr. Michelle Robidaux is a 20-something resident. Inexperienced yet eager, she is finding her footing among giants.
Cast Bios
Ving Rhames
Dr. Jorge Villanueva
Ving Rhames was born and raised in Harlem, N.Y. His thespian career began at the New York High School of Performing Arts, followed by the prestigious Julliard School of Drama. His training quickly landed the talented actor his first role on Broadway in The Winter Boys. After the play, he made the transition to television, making his first appearance on Go Tell It On the Mountain in 1985, followed by Miami Vice. He then effortlessly segued to feature films, with such credits as Jacob's Ladder and Homicide.
A few years after his on screen debut, Rhames was cast as a merciless drug dealer opposite Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta in Quentin Tarrantino's Pulp Fiction. His performance in the film helped land him the role of Luther Stickell in Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible, opposite Tom Cruise and Jon Voight.
Rhames' notable performances led him towards the long path of starring in many other blockbuster hits such as John Singleton's Rosewood, with Jon Voight, and Simon West's Con Air, with Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich and John Cusack. In 1997, the busy actor played the role of Don King in HBO's Don King: Only in America. His portrayal earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries. From this award- winning performance he went on to star in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight, with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez; Jon Amiel's Entrapment, with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones; and Martin Scorcese's Bringing Out the Dead, with Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette and Tom Sizemore.
In 2000 Rhames returned as Luther Stickell in John Woo's Mission: Impossible II, with Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton and Dougray Scott. He then starred in John Singleton's Baby Boy, with Tyrese Gibson; Walter Hill's Undisputed, with Wesley Snipes; Ron Shelton's Dark Blue, with Kurt Russell; Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, with Sarah Polley and Mekhi Phifer; and Mission: Impossible III, with Tom Cruise and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Rhames ventured behind the camera in 2005 as a producer for the USA series Kojak. His producer credits also include Back in the Day, Animal and Shooting Gallery. Rhames has also starred in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, with Adam Sandler and Kevin James; and Surrogates, with Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell, and he made a cameo appearance in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Alfred Molina
Dr. Harding Hooten
Alfred Molina is an accomplished London-born actor whose diverse and distinguished gallery of performances have led to a lengthy and triumphant career in film, television and the stage. Prior to Monday Mornings, he starred in NBC's Law & Order: Los Angeles for producer Dick Wolf. He also opened in the critically acclaimed movie An Education and filmed a TV comedy for the BBC, Rog & Val Have Just Got In, opposite Dawn French. In late fall 2009, Molina opened in the UK in the highly celebrated Donmar Warehouse production of Red, which opened on Broadway in April 2010 and for which Molina received rave reviews and a Tony nomination. Red recently opened in Los Angeles at The Mark Taper Forum.
In summer of 2010 Molina had two movies released, Prince of Persia, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, and Sorcerer's Apprentice, with Nicolas Cage. In September 2011, Molina was seen in the Lionsgate feature Abduction, co-starring with Taylor Lautner and Sigourney Weaver and directed by John Singleton. He then he appeared in three episodes of Harry's Law, starring Kathy Bates.
In 2002, Molina won rave reviews and nominations for the British Academy Award (BAFTA), the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Broadcast Film Critics prize and the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for his Best Supporting Actor turn as the hedonistic Mexican artist Diego Rivera in Frida, Julie Taymor's docudrama about the life of Frida Kahlo starring Oscar nominee Salma Hayek. Other screen roles include The Pink Panther 2, opposite Steve Martin; The Little Traitor, an adaptation of the Amos Oz novel, Panther In the Basement, directed by Lynn Roth and produced by Marilyn Hall; and The Tempest, director Julie Taymor's version of the Shakespearian play. The latter was released in late 2010.
Following Molina's education at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, he quickly gained membership in England's prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, where he performed both in classics like Troilus and Cressida and new original works like Frozen Assets and Dingo. In 1979, he won acclaim (and a Plays and Players Award as Most Promising New Actor) as The Maniac in Accidental Death of an Anarchist at London's Half Moon Theatre.
Two years later, Molina found himself on the big screen making his American debut in Raiders of the Lost Ark. And in Stephen Frears' 1987 drama, Prick Up Your Ears, Molina won great notices for his portrait of a vengeful, murderous Kenneth Halliwell, playwright Joe Orton's gay lover.
Molina's career continued to soar in the following decade, with roles as an unhappy upper-class husband in Mike Newell's Enchanted April, the joyous painter Titorelli in David Jones' 1993 adaptation of Kafka's novel The Trial and the duplicitous Persian spouse in Not Without My Daughter. He re-teamed with director Donner in the comic western Maverick and played the small but pivotal role of a crazed drug dealer in Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar-nominated Boogie Nights (1997). Molina joined Anderson once again for his epic ensemble drama Magnolia (1999), collecting Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for both as part of the films' ensemble casts. He also continued to display his ability to embody a variety of nationalities, playing a Cuban immigrant in Mira Nair's The Perez Family (1995) and a Greek-American lawyer in Barbet Schroeder's drama Before and After (1996). Other films over this 10-year span include Roger Donaldson's sci-fi thriller Species, Jon Amiel's comic thriller The Man Who Knew Too Little, Bernard Rose's Anna Karenina, Woody Allen's Celebrity and Stanley Tucci's The Impostors.
In the new century, Molina collected his third SAG Awards Ensemble Cast nomination for Lasse Hallström's whimsical, Oscar-nominated romantic comedy Chocolat and reunited with Hallström opposite Richard Gere in The Hoax. He also turned heads as the villainous Dr. Otto Octavius, a.k.a. Dr. Octopus, in Sam Raimi's blockbuster sequel Spider-Man 2. Molina co-starred in such films as Identity, Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes, Ron Howard's adaptation of the enormously popular book The Da Vinci Code, Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me, Eric Till's biographical drama Luther, the bilingual suspense thriller Crónicas, Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation As You Like It, François Girard's Silk and John Irvin's The Moon and the Stars.
Molina has also stared in two comedies for CBS. He played a washed-up writer sought out by his estranged daughter in Bram and Alice (2002), and he played Jimmy Stiles in Ladies' Man, on which he also served as one of the producers. His other television work has included the acclaimed 1983 miniseries Reilly: Ace of Spies, Miami Vice, the BBC telefilm Revolutionary Witness, Granada TV's El C.I.D., the BBC miniseries Ashenden (based on Peter Mayles' bestseller, A Year in Provence) and the Hallmark Channel's Joan of Arc (as narrator). He also starred in the TNT miniseries The Company, produced by Scott Free Productions, and he has made guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit and Monk.
Despite his thriving film and television career, Molina has never wandered far from the stage for long. He returned to the RSC to give a much-praised performance as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (1985) and earned an Olivier nomination for his work in the British production of David Mamet's Speed the Plow. In his Broadway debut as the good-natured Yvan in Yasmina Reza's Art (1998, starring with Alan Alda and Victor Garber), Molina collected the first of his two Tony nominations for Best Actor. He made his Broadway debut as the Irish chatterbox Frank Sweeney in Brian Friel's play Molly Sweeney (1995-96) and most recently triumphed as Tevye in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, for which he earned his second Tony nod. He also completed a run at the Mark Taper Forum of The Cherry Orchard in 2006, opposite Annette Bening.
Jamie Bamber
Dr. Tyler Wilson
Deep space is a long way from London, England, but classically trained actor Jamie Bamber has proven adept at navigating both territories. Known to millions as Commander Apollo from the cult phenomenon Battlestar Galactica, which the likes of Rolling Stone and Time deemed the top show on television, Bamber more recently relocated home to London to star in ITV's hit drama Law & Order: UK. He has since returned to Los Angeles for recurring arcs on Body of Proof and TNT's Perception. In addition to Monday Mornings, he also stars in the title role of the crime-thriller John Doe.
Born in Hammersmith, England, Bamber moved with his American father and Northern Irish mother to Paris for the first seven years of its life. It was in Paris that his actress mother who, lacking a daughter, cast him as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Hence began Bamber's penchant for acting.
Bamber attended St. Paul's School in London and eventually Cambridge University, where he earned 1st Class M.A. Honors in modern languages, including French and Italian. While there, he played rugby and performed in numerous theatrical productions. Though Bamber had been acting since childhood, it was not until his acceptance to the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts that he opted to pursue it as his career. Shortly thereafter, he was cast in his first professional role as Archie Kennedy in the acclaimed British miniseries Horatio Hornblower.
Bamber's more recent credits include the French-language film Le Perde de Ma Fille, the lead in Weinstein Co's sequel to the thriller Pulse, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hank's award-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, guest-starring turns on the dramas House, CSI: Miami, Dollhouse, Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, the BBC telefilm Daniel Deronda, the BBC series Outcasts and ITV's Peak Justice and Ultimate Force. On stage, he has starred as Prince Hal in Henry IV at the Bristol Old Vic and as Mephistopheles in Dr. Faustus.
In his spare time, Bamber is equally as athletic as his Apollo character appeared on screen. He has run the London Marathon and is an avid golfer, skier and tennis player.
Jennifer Finnigan
Dr. Tina Ridgeway
Jennifer Finnigan is an actress with great depth and comedic talent. Born and raised in Montreal, she started acting professionally at the age of 18, taking roles on various television shows on Nickelodeon and Fox Family in Montreal.
Landing the role of Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful in 2001 spawned Finnigan's move to Los Angeles. That role earned her a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for three consecutive years: 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Finnigan's additional television credits include the CBS drama Close to Home, in which she played Annabeth Chase, a young, aggressive prosecutor with a perfect conviction record. Prior to that, she starred in the NBC comedy Committed and the NBC drama Crossing Jordan.
Finnigan currently resides in Los Angeles.
Bill Irwin
Dr. Buck Tierney
Bill Irwin is an original member of Kraken and San Francisco's Pickle Family Circus. His original works include Fool Moon, Largely New York, The Harlequin Studies, Mr. Fox: A Rumination, The Happiness Lecture and The Regard of Flight.
Irwin's extensive theatre credits include Bye Bye Birdie, Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Waiting for Godot, the Broadway and West End revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2005 Tony Award, Helen Hayes Award), Edward Albee's The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, Accidental Death of An Anarchist, 5-6-7-8 Dance!, Waiting For Godot at Lincoln Center, Scapin, The Tempest, Garden of Earthly Delights, Texts for Nothing, A Flea In Her Ear, The Seagull, A Man's A Man and 3 Cuckolds. In addition, the 2003-04 season at the Signature Theatre was devoted to his original work.
On television, Irwin has appeared on PBS's Great Performances: Bill Irwin Clown Prince, Third Rock from the Sun, Northern Exposure, Sesame Street, Elmo's World, The Regard of Flight, The Cosby Show, The Laramie Project, Subway Stories, Bette Midler: Mondo Beyondo, Law and Order, Life on Mars, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Good Wife, Lights Out, and the Closing Ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games.
Irwin's big-screen credits include Rachel Getting Married, Higher Ground, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Igby Goes Down, Lady in the Water, Dark Matter, Raving, Across The Universe, Popeye, Eight Men Out, Silent Tongue, Illuminata, My Blue Heaven, A New Life, Scenes from a Mall and Stepping Out.
Irwin has earned numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Fulbright Program and the MacArthur Foundation.
Keong Sim
Dr. Sung Park
Keong Sim has been everywhere lately, recurring on Glee as Mike Chang Sr.; guest-starring on Mike & Molly, Harry's Law and Grey's Anatomy, and now taking a series regular role on TNT's new series Monday Mornings. He also recently filmed a supporting role in Antone Fuqua's upcoming Olympus Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart.
In short, Sim has come a long way from his first professional film line: "In the butt?" in Marci X, starring Lisa Kudrow and Damon Wayans. Though that line was edited out, Keong went on from it to work on many other films and TV shows, such as M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, The Forgotten (with Christian Slater), TNT's Southland, Rescue Me, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and MTV's Boiling Points, to name a few.
On stage, Sim has performed extensively in New York, as well as nationally. He has collaborated with luminaries such as George Wolfe at The Public Theatre, with the world premiere of Radiant Baby; Tony winner and Academy Award nominee Frank Galati, at Steppenwolf Theatre, for the world premiere of After the Quake; Chita Rivera at Papermill Playhouse for a production of Anything Goes; Jim Simpson at Flea Theatre, for the Obie-winning show Benten Kozo); and with Tony winner John Glines, for a production of Butterflies & Tigers. He has also had the opportunity to travel abroad for acting gigs in Cuba, Canada, England and the Czech Republic.
Sim has studied and performed at Upright Citizens Brigade, Improv Olympic West, Chicago City Limits and the Peoples Improv Theatre (PIT). He has toured with Chicago City Limits' National Touring Company. He also has performed for corporate training with TeamAct, Performance of a Lifetime and Laughter For A Change. He's especially proud of his volunteer work teaching improv to the boys at Pacific Lodge.
Sim grew up in Chicago and graduated from the University of Chicago.
Sarayu Rao
Dr. Sydney Napur
Sarayu Rao, a native of Madison, Wisc., earned her master's degree from The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Since arriving in Los Angeles, she has accumulated many TV credits, including recurring roles on the FOX series Sons of Tucson and CBS' NCIS:LA.
Rao's guest-star credits include In Plain Sight, Fairly Legal, Franklin & Bash, Harry's Law, Outsourced, Hawthorne, Life and The Big Bang Theory. Additionally, she was in the feature film Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford.
Emily Swallow
Dr. Michelle Robinaux
Emily Swallow grew up in Jacksonville, Fla. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia, where she majored in Middle Eastern studies. She was expecting to go on to a career as a Foreign Service Officer, but her acting teachers at UVA noticed her passion for the arts and encouraged her to pursue further training. As a result, Swallow moved to New York City and earned a master's degree in acting from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
On television and film, Swallow has been on both sides of the law, playing a detective on Ringer, a detective's wife on Southland, a bounty hunter on the CBS pilot The Odds, a bank robber on Medium and even a patriotic, RV-traveling hooker in The Lucky Ones. For good measure, she also played a mermaid on Flight of the Conchords. Most recently Swallow starred in the independent feature The Rift, directed by Shana Sosin.
On stage, Swallow has starred in a diverse range of plays and musicals, performing Shakespeare in Central Park's Delacorte Theatre (Much Ado About Nothing), Minneapolis' Tony-winning Guthrie Theater (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and, most notably, San Diego's Old Globe, where she won the Falstaff Award for her portrayal of Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. In early 2012, Swallow returned to the Guthrie to play Maggie in the critically acclaimed production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Lisa Peterson. Swallow has originated roles in new plays by Rinne Groff (Orange Lemon Egg Canary) at P.S. 122, David Grimm (Measure for Pleasure) at the Public Theatre and Betty Shamieh (The Black Eyed) at the New York Theatre Workshop, to name a few.
Swallow's parents, Jo and Gary Swallow, shared their love of music with her early on, and she continues to exercise that passion by performing in musicals. In 2006, Swallow made her Broadway debut in High Fidelity, based on the Nick Hornby novel and the film of the same name. In 2008, she starred in John Patrick Shanely and Henry Krieger's Romantic Poetry at Manhattan Theatre Club. She continues to workshop new musicals by such talented writers and composers as Michael Friedman, Melissa James Gibson, Jordan Harrison, Daniel Zaitchik, Maggie-Kate Coleman and Anna Jacobs. She most recently wrote and performed an original cabaret in New York with friend and fellow songstress Jac Huberman.
Production Bios
David E. Kelley
Executive Producer
Multi award-winning writer/producer David E. Kelley is the mind behind some of America's most distinctive television series. As creator of the Emmy, Peabody and Golden Globe -winning shows Boston Legal, The Practice and Ally McBeal; the critically acclaimed dramatic series Harry's Law, Boston Public and Chicago Hope; and the multiple award-winning drama series Picket Fences, Kelley has developed a writing and executive-producing style that continues to intrigue television viewing audiences.
After receiving his law degree from the Boston University School of Law, Kelley was an attorney practicing law in Boston before venturing into the world of entertainment. Honored with four George Foster Peabody Awards, a Television Showmanship Award from the Publicists Guild of America, the David Susskind Lifetime Achievement Award from the Producers Guild and the TV Guide Awards' inaugural Brandon Tartikoff Award, Kelley was also the subject of a tribute by the Museum of Television and Radio and was named a Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame Honoree. He is the recipient of the Monte Carlo Television Festival's first Showman of the Year Award and the Casting Society of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also been honored by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. In addition, he has received the prestigious Humanitas Prize for two consecutive years for The Practice, and he was presented with both The Paddy Chayefsky Lifetime Achievement Award and The Paul Selvin Award from the Writers Guild of America. To date, Kelley is the only producer ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy and Outstanding Drama in the same year, which he did in 1999 with the shows Ally McBeal and The Practice.
Bill D'Elia
Executive Producer
Bill D'Elia made his feature-film directing debut with The Feud (1990), which he adapted from the novel of the same name by Thomas Berger. D'Elia made his television directing debut the following year, helming multiple episodes of the Emmy-winning Northern Exposure.
Today D'Elia's directing credits include episodes of the Emmy-winning series Picket Fences, The West Wing and Law and Order; several movies for television, including The Dottie West Story; and multiple episodes of such hit series as Glee, Grey's Anatomy and The Mentalist.
Prior to directing television and film, D'Elia directed hundreds of television commercials through his own New York based production company. His commercials have received numerous industry awards, including the Addy, Clio, Telly and Art Director One Show awards.
From 1996 to 2000, D'Elia was executive producer/director of Chicago Hope, receiving two Golden Globe and three Emmy nominations, including a nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the musical episode entitled "Brain Salad Surgery."
In 1999, D'Elia co-created the hit drama series Judging Amy. In 2000, he became executive producer/director of the Emmy-winning series Ally McBeal, and received two more Golden Globe nominations. For the episode entitled "Ally McBeal: The Musical," he received another Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. D'Elia directed the episodes that introduced Robert Downey, Jr. to the cast. He was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series for the episode entitled "The Last Virgin."
From 2001 to 2004, D'Elia was a consulting producer/director for various television series, including Miracles and The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H. He also continued to direct episodes of The West Wing. In 2003, he directed a short comedy segment for Saturday Night Live entitled "Al Gore visits The West Wing," starring the former Vice President.
In 2004, during the The Practice's final season, D'Elia became a consulting producer/director, helping David E. Kelley create the characters and settings that would become the legal dramedy Boston Legal. He then directed the pilot and executive-produced the series along with Kelley. From 2005 to 2009, D'Elia received a Peabody Award and four more Emmy nominations for his work on Boston Legal, twice for Outstanding Drama Series as an executive producer and twice for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. He is among the first recipients of the Television Academy Honors, given by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to recognize those that create television with a conscience with programs that present issues of concern to society in a compelling, emotional and insightful way.
In 2010, continuing his long association with Kelley, D'Elia directed the pilot for Harry's Law, written by Kelley and starring Kathy Bates. While directing and executive-producing the two seasons of Harry's Law, D'Elia won another Television Academy Honor.
Sanjay Gupta
Executive Producer
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is the multiple Emmy®-winning chief medical correspondent for CNN. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in CNN's reporting on health and medical news for Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien, Anderson Cooper 360°, CNN documentaries, and anchors the weekend medical affairs program Sanjay Gupta, MD. Gupta also contributes to CNN.com and CNNHealth.com. His medical training and public health policy experience distinguish his reporting on a range of medical and scientific topics including brain injury, disaster recovery, health care reform, fitness, military medicine, HIV/AIDS and other areas.
In 2011, Gupta reported from earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged Japan, adding clarity and context to the human impact and radiation concerns. In 2010, Gupta reported on the devastating earthquake in Haiti, for which he was awarded two Emmys®. His distinctive reporting in 2010 included live coverage on the unprecedented flooding in Pakistan.
Based in Atlanta, Gupta joined CNN in the summer of 2001. He reported from New York following the attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. In 2003, he embedded with the U.S. Navy's Devil Docs medical unit, reporting from Iraq and Kuwait as the unit traveled to Baghdad. He provided live coverage of the first operation performed during the war, and performed life-saving brain surgery five times himself in a desert operating room. In 2009, he embedded with the U.S. Army's 82ndAirborne, accompanying them on life-saving rescue missions in Afghanistan.
Gupta contributed to the network's 2010 Peabody Award-winning coverage of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2006, Gupta contributed to CNN's Peabody Award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina, revealing that official reports that Charity Hospital in New Orleans had been evacuated were incorrect. His Charity Hospital coverage for Anderson Cooper 360° resulted in his 2006 News & Documentary Emmy® for Outstanding Feature Story. In 2004, Gupta was sent to Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami disaster that took more than 155,000 lives in Southeast Asia, contributing to the 2005 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for CNN.
Gupta's passion for inspiring Americans to lead healthier, more active lives led him to launch Fit Nation, CNN's multi-platform anti-obesity initiative. In 2009 Fit Nation followed the progress of Gupta and six CNN viewers as they inspire each other while training for a triathlon. The program is in its third year.
In addition to his work for CNN, Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine. He is associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital and regularly performs surgery at Emory University and Grady hospitals. He holds memberships in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as a diplomat of the American Board of Neurosurgery, is a certified medical investigator, and is a board member of the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Foundation.
Before joining CNN, Gupta completed separate neurosurgical fellowships at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic in Tennessee, and the University of Michigan Medical Center. In 1997, he was selected as a White House Fellow, serving as a special advisor to First Lady Hillary Clinton.
Gupta contributes to the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes. He is the author of three best-selling books, Chasing Life (2007), Cheating Death (2009) and Monday Mornings (2012).
In 2003, Gupta was named one of People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" and a pop-culture icon by USA Today. That same year he also won the Humanitarian Award from the National Press Photographers Association. In 2004, the Atlanta Press Club named him Journalist of the Year, and in 2009, he won both the first Health Communications Achievement Award from the American Medical Association's Medical Communications Conference and the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC). In 2010, Gupta was honored by John F. Kennedy University with its Laureate Award for leaders in health and wellness. 2011, Forbes magazine named him as one of the "Ten Most Influential Celebrities."
Gupta received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a doctorate of medicine from the University of Michigan Medical School.
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