EXCLUSIVE: Artists First, the management and production company founded by Peter Principato, has launched a Music Division led by veteran exec and entrepreneur Carmen Murray.

In her role as Founding Advisor, Murray will help establish and guide the company’s music strategy while developing new opportunities across music, sports, branding, intellectual property, and strategic partnerships. Along with her partner Michael Michel, she will work closely with Artists First’s management teams to create meaningful pathways for athletes and actors to engage with the music industry through business development, brand collaborations, and other cross-industry initiatives.

Murray is the founder and Co-CEO of Title 9, a management, production, and intellectual property company repping artists, producers, songwriters, and other creatives. Alongside Co-CEO Michel, she has helped build the company into a strategic platform for talent development, content creation, and intellectual property growth across music, film, television, sports, and emerging media.

Throughout her career, Michel has cultivated and led strategic partnerships with the likes of Universal Music Publishing Group, Def Jam Recordings, Atlantic Records, Republic Records, Epic Records, Motown, Warner Chappell Music, EMPIRE, MNRK Music Group, BMG, SRC Records, and Roc Nation.

“I’ve worked closely with Carmen for many years and have seen firsthand her ability to deliver results across multiple areas of the entertainment industry,” said Artists First Chairman Principato and CEO E. Brian Dobbins. “She has an extraordinary reputation and a collaborative approach that aligns with our culture. As we continue to grow, we’re sharply focused on opportunities that create genuine synergy across the company to expand what’s possible for our clients, and Carmen is uniquely positioned to help us do that.”

Murray said, “Artists First has built an extraordinary reputation by championing talent and fostering long-term creative careers. I am honored to help lead the launch of the Music Division and create new opportunities at the intersection of music, entertainment, sports, and brands. Throughout my career, I have seen that the greatest opportunities are created when creative communities unite around a common purpose. I look forward to bridging relationships across the creative community and helping build the Music Division into a significant driver of growth, innovation, and market impact for the organization.”

Is there a trickier character on TV right now than The Vampire Armand? From Arun to Amadeo, from “Rashid” to “Maitre,” from Lestat to Louis to the still mysterious transformation of Daniel Molloy, Armand’s true identity and motivations are always lurking somewhere beneath the surface, just out of sight. And actor Assad Zaman is ever doing elegant work, both on screen and in interviews, to dig into those motives without giving it all away.

Certainly, it’s no surprise that the ancient trickster is up to something again in “The Vampire Lestat.” Viewers got their first taste when the character returned at the tail-end of Episode 3, introducing himself as Arun at an AA meeting – specifically, an AA meeting attended by Lestat’s former bandmate Alex, fresh off of his dramatic exit from the tour.

And in Episode 4, Armand is back in full, doing step nine of the 12 Steps, no less. “We meet him two years after his entire world has been shattered,” Zaman told TheWrap, “and his 77 years of building this foundation of life has been taken away from him.” And according to Armand, there’s sincerity in those amends, even if his approach to Daniel is different than his approach to Lestat.

“Armand’s confession to [Lestat] is very different to Armand’s confession to Malloy. There’s a different objective there. I think Armand comes to Malloy to offer Malloy something for Malloy,” Zaman explained. But with Lestat? “I think it’s more for Armand himself.”

The catch is that Lestat clearly knows it, and in return, he has a grand time playing games with his favorite gremlin.

“I think it’s great fun for Letsat to play with Armand in that way,” series star Sam Reid said about their Episode 4 encounter. “I mean, that’s their dynamic. I think they both get a kick out of it. I think they do complete a part of each other that is necessary for one another.”

Rile Armand up he does, with a sultry blood shower and a cutting answer to Armand’s apology (and that’s before he drops his diss track, “Big Boss”). Lestat tells him simply that he is a “F– cloud,” before really laying in: “Be who you are, but be it on the other side of the moon … or kill yourself,” Lestat goads him.

According to Zaman, that reaction comes as no surprise to Armand: “It’s sort of to be expected. He also has a greater plan.” As for that last part, sorry Lestat; not in the cards for Armand. “He is a survivor at the end,” Zaman said. “He can’t really end it.”

That means Armand has to continue to evolve. “Reading the books, reading about Armand, he goes through these eras,” Zaman explained. “He goes through quite a few of these tragedies, moments where his entire worldview or his entire sort of existence is broken and shattered, and then he has to rebuild.”

Below, Zaman helps us untangle the many mystifying layers of Armand’s new era, from his thoughts on the Armand Told the Truthers to why he couldn’t help but enjoy “Big Boss.”

I’m curious about the fact that the sentiment “Armand Told the Truth” exists in the public and how that’s hitting for Armand. For someone who’s such a proponent of these great laws, but also seeks so much validation, is there a part of him that feels vindicated by that, or is he just horrified by the concept of being a public figure?

I’m not sure whether that’s really in his register, in the journey that he’s on in this. He’s very clearly recruiting and very clearly trying to bring vampires into his way of thinking, and going back into the dark, and taking away this broadcast that Lestat, and Louis to an extent and even Malloy, are sort of doing. I think his mission is singular to the point where him being vindicated, or being right, or being seen as the sort of the right one, isn’t really of interest to him. I think he’s got bigger, or he’s got more personal things that he wants to sort of achieve.

So yeah, I’m not sure how aware – well, he’s aware, but I’m not sure how bothered he is by the Armand Told the Truthers. They’re a means to an end, the followers.

Digging into this episode, and the return of Armand at the end of Episode 3. I’m curious if you could just tell me a little bit about the concept of Armand as an addict, and what that means to you.

Armand is addicted to everything, like addicted to the concept of surviving life. We meet him two years after his entire world has been shattered, and his 77 years of building this foundation of life has been taken away from him. And that has caused him to, I guess, reevaluate things, and how he’s sort of approached things.

Reading the books, reading about Armand, he goes through these eras. He goes through quite a few of these tragedies, moments where his entire worldview or his entire sort of existence is broken and shattered, and then he has to rebuild.

He goes through a period of cocooning, he goes through a period of sort of rediscovery, and this one is a very specific one, where he has to come to terms with the lies that he’s told, come to terms with what he’s done to certain people, the hurt that he’s caused. And he is a survivor at the end. He can’t really end it. He hasn’t got the courage to end it himself, so he has to survive some way, and I think that comes with acknowledging the systemic behavior that he’s sort of undertaken for the last 70-odd years, and that has been his sort of addiction.

So he’s going forward with that in mind. He’s got a mission, but he’s also, I think, he’s sincere in the acknowledgment of his addictions and wanting to lay them bare.

That speaks to the underlying question about this character, which is you never really know where he’s coming from. My read on him is that I think he typically does come from a sincere place, and does things that are abhorrent because of that. Do you feel that way about him, or do you feel like he’s running games and strategies all the time?

No, absolutely. No, absolutely, you’re right. I think he is. It’s funny, I also think most of us are coming from sincere places. I think he does. He tangles himself into webs of deceit and lies and manipulation because he thinks that’s the only way to hold on to safety. That the safety that he gets from the people that he values as his protectors, as his source of love, he thinks that’s the only way to hold on to them. But it’s sincere.

I don’t think he goes – oh, well, it’s difficult. It’s such a good question, because I’m also still figuring it out as well. There’s so many contradictions with Armand, and I love that. And I love that there’s such … another reason why I’m sort of hesitating with this, because I love that there is such a divided audience with Armand. How people are so adamant that he’s one thing, and so adamant that he’s the opposite. I actually think that that’s really useful, because if I prescribe Armand too much myself, I think it makes him harder to access maybe, because I’ve already given it. I’ve given my version, or I’ve given what I’m trying to do.

He’s sincere, but maybe sometimes he isn’t. Maybe sometimes something comes out rooted in evil, or something comes out rooted in a f–ed up fantasy, because he doesn’t really understand, he was never given the chance to really understand who he is, as a good person or a bad person. He was told what he was. He was used and abused the way he was.

The king of “two things can be true.”

Yeah.

I feel like that is certainly the case in the dynamic between him and Lestat. It’s so playful, yet hateful, and so complex. Can you tell me about getting to dig into that dynamic in that bus scene with Sam? And then sort of as a follow-up to that, tell me a little bit about Armand’s mindset when he’s immediately greeted with a diss track?

Yeah, it’s so on-point for Lestat as a character, and I think Armand. It was so fun. I love the scenes with Armand and Lestat. I love playing with Sam. The dynamic between them two, there’s so much to dig into in that. There’s so much to find. They have this brilliantly complex history. Lestat obviously loves teasing him and taunting him, and I think, in a way, Armand kind of enjoys it himself. There’s a little bit of that. There’s a cattiness there.

Armand’s confession to him is very different to Armand’s confession to Malloy. There’s a different objective there. I think Armand comes to Malloy to offer Malloy something for Malloy. But I think Armand comes to Lestat to declare that he has understood what their relationship – Armand himself has come to terms with the destructiveness of this obsession with Lestat. And it’s not necessarily for Lestat. And I think it’s more for Armand himself. So I don’t think he’s surprised that Lestat teases and taunts him, and belittles him and humiliates him in that moment. It’s sort of to be expected. He also has a greater plan.

And then, you know, he also enjoys “Big Boss,” even though he shouldn’t. It’s how he fell in love with Lestat in the first place, watching him perform, and seeing his freedom, and seeing how he’s able to embrace who he is in its entirety – Something that Armand has always struggled to do and come to terms with.

He loves it, and he hates it, and watching him perform is like self-flagellation again. It’s like, “I shouldn’t love this, but I am loving this. I can’t show him that I love it. I do love it.” For me as an actor, that day was also the same thing. I was also really enjoying it, and trying to sort of ride past it and keep a straight face through it. I hope we do get more with Lestat and Armand. There’s a lot there.

There’s so much. There’s a part of me that’s like, he must have been a little bit elated that Lestat thought about him enough to write a song.

Oh yeah, right? Lestat wrote a song? I don’t think Armand really took in the contents of the song. I think he just was like, “He wrote a song about me?” [Laughs]

I am about out of time with you, so I will just sneak in one more super-short question: Is getting a dressing down from Eric Bogosian as invigorating as it seems like it would be?

Yes, it is very invigorating. I love watching him in his element with those speeches as well. They’re similar to some of the amazing bits of dialog that he has in Season 2, where Malloy is able to distill the grandiosity of vampiric life and existence, and all of that stuff, and dilute it, distill it into its simplest form. This is an absent father doing the steps. And he goes, “I’ll do it better,” and he does it better. [Laughs] He does it perfectly. That was really a joy to watch Eric performing that.

EXCLUSIVE: As production continues in Los Angeles on HBO Max‘s The Pitt Season 3, six actors have joined the recurring cast: Pruitt Taylor Vince (Superman), Malachi Beasley (A House of Dynamite), Cheyenne Perez (The Sex Lives of College Girls), Jeremy Radin (The Accountant 2), Charlz Williams (Seal Team), and Rosanny Zayas (The L Word: Generation Q).

The Pitt chronicles the urgent challenges U.S. frontline healthcare professionals face through the lens of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency department. Offering a real-time format, the series traces, hour by hour, the medical cases and personal crises physicians and nurses must navigate as they reckon with an overabundance of patients and a lack of resources.

There aren’t many details regarding Season 3 as of yet, except for the timeline when it will take place, which is around 4 months after the events of Season 2.

Wyle noted in May, “It’s set in early November, just before the holidays, ushering in a whole new set of emergencies and confrontations and complications.”

Both Veterans Day and Thanksgiving are celebrated in November. So to be a little more specific, Season 3 will take place after Veterans Day, but before Thanksgiving, sources close to production told me recently.

In a post-mortem for Season 2, Wyle teased what’s ahead for his character Dr. Robby’s future: “Well, I think we’ll find out what that rock bottom looks like next year.”

Season 3 will also focus on medicare cuts.

“When you have characters that are as rich and diverse and as multi-dimensional as the ones that we have, it’s very easy to just sort of plot them into the future and figure out what they would be struggling with at that point. But, obviously these cuts in Medicare, the ones that are going to affect Americans and put them off the rolls, hospital closures, there’s all sorts of very pressing issues that are facing hospitals and health care workers in America, and we’ve only scratched the surface,” he said in March.

The series stars Noah Wyle, Katherina LaNasa, Sepideh Moafi, Patrick Ball, Isa Briones, Shawn Hatosy, Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif, Supriya Ganesh, Shabana Azeez and Gerran Howell. Ganesh will not be returning for Season 3. Azeez’s character Victoria Javadi will not be in ER when the show returns, as she will be busy working on her psychiatry rotation.

Ayesha Harris, who previously recurred on the hit medical drama, was upped to series regular for Season 3. Her character, Dr. Parker Ellis, a senior resident working the night shift, will pivot to the day shift when the show returns. Harris will be the only new series regular for Season 3.

Details regarding who the newly added supporting cast will play can be found below.

Vince will play Lance Candella (aka The Professor), an Emergency Department patient.  

Beasley will play Student Doctor Taj Osei.

Perez will play Student Doctor Marisol Elena Sambrano Monterossa.

Radin will play Grant Emerson, an Emergency Department patient. 

Williams will play Angus Gunn (aka Trigger), an Emergency Department patient. 

Zayas will play Physician Assistant Vera Delgado.

The Pitt is produced by John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, where JWP is under an overall deal. R. Scott Gemmill created the series and serves as an executive producer alongside John Wells, Simran Baidwan, Joe Sachs, Michael Hissrich, and Eli Attie.

Vince is represented by The Burstein Company and Artium Talent; Beasley is represented by The Gersh Agency and Door 24;  Radin is represented by SAKS&; Williams is represented by Embrace Real Artists and Sheer Talent Management LLC.; Zayas is represented by Buchwald, Monica Villarreal, Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson, & Christopher.