Bellbrook Grad’s Professional Life Turns into Major Dramatic Hit

To many in the Bellbrook area, he’s probably just Brent. Perhaps to his close friends, they call him “Doc” in jest.

But Dr. Brent Rau’s professional life has been broadcast for all to see, thanks to a major hit TV show on HBO Max, “The Pitt.”

Dr. Rau is the inspiration for the main character, Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle.

Not bad for a Bellbrook kid who never even considered a career in medicine until he got to college.

The 40-year-old 2004 BHS graduate is the Vice Chair of the Allegheny Health Network Emergency Medicine Institute and the Medical Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine, making his involvement in the show possibly the least impressive thing on his resume. 

But life was a lot different when Brent was growing up in Bellbrook.

“Back then, being a doctor was not even on my radar. Frankly, I thought being in school that many years was obnoxious,” Dr. Rau said with a chuckle. “But you learn when you leave that you get to study a lot more of what matters to you when you get to college.”

Dr. Rau said he was not the top in his class, but he did well in high school. Part of that, he admits, was because he wasn’t sure of what his next step would be.

“I wasn’t trying to go to Harvard,” he said. “I guess I thought I’d probably be a teacher and coach football. Seemed like a fun thing to do. I think I even thought at one time I’d be an architect. Being a doctor wasn’t on my radar until well into the future.”

His mother Nancy, however, sees it a little differently. 

“I said to him multiple times, ‘What about medicine?’” Nancy Rau said. “He had a Chemistry teacher he absolutely adored, Berch Carpenter. (Carpenter) got through to kids that other teachers couldn’t. Brent really, really enjoyed chemistry. And Brent wasn’t the only person who picked that up because of Mr. Carpenter.”

Nancy said Brent wasn’t often in the spotlight. He was studious enough to get good grades, but was more focused on the social aspect of school than the academic. 

“He had a strong cadre of friends he kept up with through college, and one of them is his daughter’s godfather,” she said. “But he had a very normal childhood.”

What’s a little abnormal in the life of Dr. Rau right now, though, is the amount of time he’s spending in the spotlight.

Dr. Rau has been interviewed by CBS News, PBS Newshour, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Miamian among others – and what has happened to him in real life has been viewed by millions who watch and adore The Pitt – but he’s still the same kid who grew up in Bellbrook and he’s still closely connected to the area.

Rau’s parents live in the house he grew up in, right down the street from the high school, and his brother lives in Columbus.

And then there’s his schooling. While Rau graduated from BHS in 2004, he didn’t stray too far from home, graduating Miami University in 2008 and Wright State University in 2012.

It was at WSU where he met his now-wife, Melissa – another Dr. Rau; she is a family practice physician. Together they have two children, an 11-year-old daughter and a soon-to-be 7-year-old son.

Brent said the time they spent together in college had its focus around another medical show, Scrubs. Lauded by the American Medical Association as one of the most medically accurate television shows of all time – especially a comedy – Dr. Rau said Scrubs was constantly on in the background while he and Melissa studied.

Now he turns on television to see a fictionalized version of himself. In terms of medical accuracy, he knows he can only look in the mirror if the medical aspects of the episode are lacking.

“I really have only myself to blame if it isn’t quite right,” Rau said of consulting for the show. To his credit, there are no such complaints to be found.

“Some things are a little far-fetched, sure. But everything in that show that has happened to that character has happened to me. Not all in the same shift, but those are all cases (and situations) I’ve had in my 15-year career.”

The Pitt’s premise is that each episode is one hour on a shift in the emergency department of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. The exterior and some interior shots are of Rau’s actual hospital, but most of the filming is done in California. The show’s protagonist, Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, is patterned after Brent’s professional life.

“The show was going to happen with or without me,” Rau said. “Noah (Wyle) is one of the main producers of the show; he was previously on ER, so he definitely had some experience and knew what he was doing. His mother was a nurse, too. They knew they didn’t want to have the show centered in New York or California.

“But they wanted to tell the story not just of the drama of the medicine but how the people who are taking care of patients experience the ED every day.”

Rau spoke of some of those experiences, like being in the ED the night of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in October of 2018, and being called in from his daughter’s birthday party when there was a shooting at a political rally involving President Trump.

Dr. Rau said he didn’t treat the president, but he was taking care of the bystanders who were shot at the rally.  

Still, there are other moments that hit close to home, too. Those are the moments the show focuses on.

“You don’t forget – can’t forget – a child dying, or a parent’s screams when you give them that news,” Dr. Rau said. “That’s stuff that stays with you. The job is truly life and death.”

So Rau said he uses the lessons he learned back home to stay grounded. 

“It’s hard with everything going on, but your friends and family keep you going. You know those are the people you can lean on when times get tough.”

Rau said he is still connected with a number of people he knew from the Bellbrook area – whether he played football with them, or just hung out with them at the time. 

And those people – along with his family – enjoy seeing his professional life played out on TV. 

“It’s really fun for us to watch and see the things he’s talked about,” Nancy Rau said. “He’s gone through some awful things in and out of the hospital. They only flash back to it sometimes in the show – but the rancor he’s faced from people he’s trying to help that he will tell us about is hard, because (Brent) is a very compassionate person.”

And if his mom thinks back enough to his high school days, she can easily connect what he’s doing now to who he thought he’d be just 20 years ago. 

“When he was in Bellbrook, he thought he might be a chemistry teacher,” she said. “Well, he’s been able to realize that a bit through what he’s doing. He’s a doctor in a teaching hospital. I think that’s one of the things he likes the best.”

And one of the reasons the people who watch The Pitt have fallen in love with a kid from Bellbrook.