“I’m excited for people to see a true youthfulness in myself. I’ve always wanted to capture my youth on camera and do a YA project, something that I could emotionally get behind.”

MC: How did you get into acting — because where did you grow up, again?

JTB: I was born in LA, but I grew up in Las Vegas.

MC: Right! 

JTB: Honestly, I’m really new to everything. I’ve only been acting for about seven years, and I got into it when I was 16 — no, 17. I found an acting class in Las Vegas, and long story short, got an agent through there. This is after I stopped playing basketball through high school in Vegas, and travel ball. 

MC: I was also playing basketball [at school].

JTB: My friends say I’m the actual Troy Bolton because I went from playing basketball to being an actor. [Laughs] And then before COVID, I started going back and forth to Burbank for auditions, driving with my mom. Eventually, one stuck after two years of doing so. I was around 19 years old, and it kept going from there.

MC: And now, folks, he’s got an Actor Award [for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for The Pitt]. 

JTB: [Laughs] Bro, this shit feels so weird.

MC: Dude, pull it out, please. [Brooks stands up to grab his award]

JTB: You and Stephen [Kalyn, who stars in Off Campus] were with me during this whole thing. 

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“I’m an avid reader and I know how passionate I can be about some characters that I care for. So I was like, ‘I know people think that about Tucker, about Garrett, about all these things,’ and you gotta have that responsibility. You don’t want to let people down. It’s always tough to navigate it, but it’s fun pressure. You know, pressure is a privilege.”