Patrick Ball still carries Charleston with him.
Sometimes it’s literal — like the faint scar on his lip, earned as a “rambunctious” 7-year-old running around a cannon at the Battery. Other times, it’s ancestral. His family’s roots in the Lowcountry stretch back to the 17th century, with generations buried near Strawberry Chapel in Moncks Corner and deep ties to the Cooper River rice plantations that once grew Carolina Gold.
Those connections aren’t footnotes. They’re part of how Ball understands himself — and how he approaches his craft.
Ball, now gaining national attention for his standout role on HBO Max’s Emmy-nominated medical drama The Pitt, says his parents made sure he understood the weight of that history. “I'm still enjoying a lot of generational privileges that were afforded to me by that family history,” Ball said in a phone interview, according to Post & Courier. “It’s something that my parents really thought it was important for us to acknowledge and understand.”
That sense of reckoning feels mirrored in the character that’s making Ball a breakout name.
On The Pitt, Ball plays Dr. Frank Langdon, a gifted but troubled chief resident at the Pittsburgh Medical Trauma Center. In Season 1, Langdon’s downward spiral ends with his mentor — played by Noah Wyle — firing him after discovering he’s been stealing prescription drugs. The performance stood out in an ensemble already rich with heavyweights, helping the series earn Emmy recognition for writing, directing, and acting.
Season 2, debuting Jan. 8, brings Langdon back after 10 months in rehab — and forces him to confront the damage he’s done. “It starts off with Langdon coming back and having to reckon with some wrongs and acknowledge that he has had a problem, and he's hurt people, and he's wronged people,” Ball told Post & Courier.
The show’s success surprised even its creators. What many expected to be another standard medical drama quickly gained a reputation for raw realism and emotional depth. That buzz helped earn Ball a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, with winners announced Jan. 4.
Yet Ball’s path to the screen wasn’t direct.
Originally planning a career in broadcast journalism, he was pulled into theater while studying at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. One role led to another. New York followed. Then six years of theater work across the country. Yale School of Drama. Finally, television — with The Pitt marking just his second on-screen appearance.
Even now, Ball straddles worlds. Last summer, he filmed Season 2 of The Pitt by day and performed Hamlet onstage in Los Angeles by night. In the spring, he’ll make his Broadway debut in Gina Gianfriddo’s “Becky Shaw.”
Through it all, Charleston remains the emotional anchor.
Ball remembers sitting with his grandfather downtown, gazing across the harbor toward Fort Sumter. Feeding pigeons rice cakes at the Battery. Family trips to James Island and Rainbow Road. He hasn’t been back in too long — but it’s calling.
“I really want to go back to Strawberry Chapel,” Ball said to Post & Courier. “I’ve got so many great memories at the Battery.”
For an actor now stepping into the national spotlight, those memories remain part of the performance.
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