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Yong Chavez

ABS-CBN News North America

<div><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ImjQspLSXsY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe> </div>Nico Santos didn’t know he’d gone viral. He’s not on TikTok. He found out the way a lot of people do these days: via Instagram messages.“Everybody was like: I saw you on TikTok,” he says, still a little amused by it. What they’d seen was his brief-but-memorable turn on &quot;St. Denis Medical&quot; when a cluster of Filipino healthcare workers rolled through the hospital and stole the show.Santos, who first appeared in season one, is back for season two. The return did not entail elaborate negotiation. It was simpler than that: fan love, creative instinct, and the gravitational pull of representation that, frankly, should have happened a long time ago.“It’s sort of baffling to me that it’s 2025, and until now, very, very few programs out there have represented the Filipino health worker,” Santos says. “Which is so strange, because if you are a breathing person, you’ve probably met a Filipino nurse or caretaker.”That’s the quiet truth humming underneath the joke. The nurse mafia angle may play for laughs, but the recognition runs deep. For many viewers, it wasn’t just comedy but a family.“‘Oh my gosh, my tita is a nurse, and this is exactly how she is,’” people tell him. Santos laughs, then zeroes in on the Filipino-nurse details that make it land: “There’s always that one really headstrong tita and the minions. They’re all gossipy. The only thing we didn’t do (in the show), I wish we had… was bring food. They should be feeding the entire hospital.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1766128996156NUP_208234_02373.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Nico Santos in &#x27;St. Denis Medical.&#x27; Handout</div>The return itself felt inevitable. I ran into the show’s co-creator Eric Ledgin and members of the cast at an Emmys campaign event and delivered a not-so-subtle request: You have to bring back Nico Santos. They all agreed that it needed to happen not only because of his online-trending performance, the much-needed Filipino nurse representation onscreen, but also because of his connection with the show’s creative team that started in &quot;Superstore.&quot;When the call came asking Santos to come back, it stirred something deeper than career momentum.“It was a no-brainer,” he says. “All these familiar faces.”For now, he’s confirmed for at least one episode — though he’s the first to admit his memory is unreliable. “My brain is Swiss cheese right now,” he says with a laugh. What he does remember clearly is telling showrunners Justin Spitzer and Ledgin that he’s ready whenever they are. “The fans want me to come back. I want to work with my friends. I want to work here in Los Angeles. Anytime they want me back, I’m waiting for that phone call.”Off-screen, the actor’s connection to healthcare is personal. The pandemic hit his family hard. He leaned on relatives and friends in medicine at a time when nobody had answers.His family was severely affected by COVID. They were cared for by Filipino healthcare workers, another reminder of what he calls an instinct that travels with the culture. “Part of our nature is really about caring,” he says. “And we’ve spread that around the world.”Santos knows something about being on the receiving end of care. For years, he dealt with serious eye issues that required intense treatments every four weeks. The timing was cruel: his career was exploding. He was part of the cultural movement of &quot;Crazy Rich Asians.&quot; &quot;Superstore&quot; was in full swing. Opportunities were coming in for the first time. Just five years prior his first time attending the Golden Globes, he was waiting tables at a Los Angeles restaurant.And yet: “There was a huge part of me that was incredibly careful,” he says. “I didn’t want to bask and soak in all of it because I didn’t know what’s gonna happen if I go to the hospital.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1766129070555NICO PIC.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Yong Chavez interviews Nico Santos at a red carpet event. Handout</div>Today, the treatments have stopped. His eyes are stable. He checks in every four months now. “I have not had a treatment in two years,” he says, the relief audible. Back then, success felt fragile. Now, it feels earned and survivable.“My career was going great. Even my personal life, I had met (now-husband) Zeke (Smith) already. So many things were going amazing, but there was this one thing that really just weighed me down.” he says. “I didn’t know what direction I could move forward.”The good news is that he’s doing much better now. “I just get my checkups every four months. And if we need a treatment, then we do it. If not, then we don&#x27;t. So we&#x27;re just keeping an eye on it,” he pauses then laughs, realizing what he just said. “No pun intended!”The experience made Nico appreciate his wins in life even more. “It’s a lot easier to sit and relax and sort of enjoy everything that&#x27;s been happening and all the things I&#x27;ve done in the past. Hollywood is such a fickle town, and I&#x27;m like: are people gonna hire me because I got a wonky eye or something? But the more work I get after &#x27;Superstore,&#x27; after &#x27;Crazy Rich Asians,&#x27; it&#x27;s a lot easier to just believe in my talent. ‘This is why people are hiring you, and your health doesn&#x27;t matter as long as you do the job.’”That perspective shows up in how audiences still respond to Mateo, his &quot;Superstore&quot; character, especially now. Amid ICE raids, deportations, and a national mood that often feels combustible, Santos keeps hearing the same thing.“Watching him (Mateo) go through what he went through and giving a lighthearted moment to something that’s very heavy,” people come up often to tell him. From personal experience, he knows that comedy is a lifeline during difficult times.“When things are burning outside, I love to watch comedy,” Santos says. “I’m glad people have been able to find Mateo as a little sliver of light.”

Nico Santos plays a Filipino nurse on US TV. In real life, his health crisis almost brought him down.

Nico Santos plays a Filipino nurse on US TV. In real life, his health crisis almost brought him down.

Here in Hollywood: Nico Santos and the return of Filipino nurses to US primetime comedy

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Here in Hollywood: Nico Santos and the return of Filipino nurses to US primetime comedy

Yong Chavez,

ABS-CBN News North America

Published Dec 19, 2025 04:57 PM PHT

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Here in Hollywood

Yong Chavez

Nico Santos

St. Denis Medical

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