After acclaim in the bushland horror Birdeater, the Adelaide actor is now a fan favourite in this year’s biggest (and weepiest) drama. It’s been a whirlwind – and she’s loving every second

It’s a familiar story: the Australian actor who ascends to LA for their international breakout, dizzied by the experience of being a small fish in a vast, alien pond. But this wasn’t the case for Adelaide born-and-raised Shabana Azeez who, after making herself known through a string of boundary pushing, budget-poor Australian projects, has now leapt assuredly into the world of The Pitt: an instantly buzzy, hyperreal medical drama from the “creme de la creme of TV-makers in the world” – the team behind ER and The West Wing.

“I just want to be in things that people have never seen before. I just want to be working with people who have something to say,” says Azeez when we speak over the phone, her words tumbling quickly and with unbridled enthusiasm.