EXCLUSIVE: Shabana Azeez, one of the stars of HBO’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning medical drama The Pitt, has signed on for a return to her indie roots with Unrequited, a romance marking the directorial debut of Lynn Q. Yu.
Based on an original script by Yu, Unrequited centers around two former college roommates, Trish and Anjali. When Trish learns that her best friend and once-lover Anjali (Azeez) is leaving the U.S. to return home to India, she takes her on a goodbye roadtrip to explore the diverse cuisines of California and convince Anjali to stay.
Producers on Unrequited include Jake Casey (Hallowarrior) and Danielle Benedict (Heightened Scrutiny) of The Dazey Phase, plus John Gray of It’s Not Pork. Rich Freeman and Rick Berg are exec producing for Code Entertainment (The Mongoose), with production to kick off in California next spring.
Yu is perhaps best known for the K-pop thriller Perfect Girl, an adaptation of her 2023 Black List script Unnie, which filmed in Thailand late last year and is expected to release in 2027.
She told Deadline, “Shabana is a tremendous talent. We’re so thrilled to be working with such an exciting actor of her generation, someone who really embodies the ethos and spirit of the script. Audiences are going to get to see Shabana in a way they haven’t seen her before, in a role that is by turns funny and sexy and charming as hell.”
In The Pitt, HBO’s series examining the dramatic day-to-day in the emergency department at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, Azeez plays Dr. Victoria Javadi. Previously, the Australian actress has also appeared opposite Succession‘s Sarah Snook in the Netflix thriller Run Rabbit Run. Among her other upcoming projects is the drama The Airport Chaplain for Australia’s SBS. She is repped by Stride Management, CP Artist Management, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
