What’s your newest project and what inspired it?

My newest project is Nurse the Dead, and honestly, it’s the biggest and most meaningful thing I’ve ever created.

It’s an independent series produced in partnership with ABS-CBN / iWantTFC; the first Filipino-American supernatural dramedy filmed in Hollywood. And it’s about to premiere on a platform that reaches over 61 million viewers worldwide.

Even though it’s independently made, it’s proof that when a community comes together: storytellers, nurses, artists, we can create something powerful enough to stand on a global stage.

The show itself is funny, heartfelt, and deeply Filipino. It follows a Filipino-American nurse navigating life, death, and all the ghosts, literal and emotional, that come with caring for others. It’s a comedy about grief, identity, and the unseen heroes who keep our hospitals, and our families, alive.

What inspired it is personal — I was raised by a single mom who’s a nurse. She’s my heart and the soul of this show. Nurse the Dead is my love letter to her and to every Filipino who’s ever cared for others more than themselves.

Can you walk us through the story behind the project?

The story behind Nurse the Dead has been sitting in my heart for over seven years.

I was raised by a single mom who worked as a nurse, the kind who’d come home after a double shift, sore and half-asleep, but still ask if I’d eaten. She’s strong, stubborn, funny, and endlessly caring and like so many Filipino moms, she carried the world without ever asking for help.

For years, I’d been trying to find the right way to tell her story (our story) but I didn’t have the courage or the clarity yet. Then, during the pandemic, I watched Michelle Josue’s documentary about Filipino nurses, how we make up only 4–5% of the U.S. nursing population, yet nearly 30% of the nurses who died from COVID were Filipino. That statistic wrecked me. These were people like my mom — like the women who raised entire families across oceans.

And then I saw one of my old sketches I had written for a PSA, “Tita’s Anatomy,” featured in that same documentary. It was surreal. It felt like the universe was saying, It’s time. Stop waiting.

That’s when Nurse the Dead finally took shape. It’s a supernatural dramedy, but at its heart, it’s about a Filipino-American daughter and her overprotective nurse mom — and the ghosts, literal and emotional, that come with caring for others your whole life. It’s a comedy about grief, identity, and love expressed through service.

Even now, as I speak, I’m on a medical mission in the jungles of Panama — because that part of me never left. I’ve spent most of my life in medicine. There’s always been this push and pull between healing people and telling stories that heal.

With Nurse the Dead, I finally got to do both. It’s my love letter to my mom, to her contemporaries — even her best friend, whom she lost to the pandemic — and to every Filipino nurse who gave until it hurt, and to the laughter that somehow always survived the heartbreak.

2. Creative Process

When people ask what the process of writing Nurse the Dead was like, I always go back to where it really began — about seven years ago, during my very first mentorship in the WGA Veterans Writing Program.

My mentors were Peter Casey and David Lee, the Emmy-winning creators of Frasier and Wings. These two legends weren’t interested in my résumé, my degrees, or my list of accolades — which, being Filipino, of course I led with. They wanted to know me.

So they asked, “Tell us something about your life.”
And the first thing that came to mind was a story about my mom — probably the only mom in U.S. Naval history to infiltrate her son’s barracks at six in the morning.

I was in training at the Naval School of Health Sciences when I heard this furious knock on my door. I opened it to see a Master-at-Arms — grumpy, stone-faced — who said, “Your mother is downstairs.”

I thought I was being pranked. But sure enough, there she was — this tiny, worried Filipino nurse who somehow made it past military security because I hadn’t answered my phone in two days. I was just studying to top my class! To this day, I still don’t know how she got in there.

Peter and David laughed so hard — but then they said, “That’s your story.” Not the medals, not the achievements — that. The Filipino mom who would break through any wall, any boundary, to make sure her kid was okay.

That moment changed me. It planted the seed for Nurse the Dead — a story about a Filipino-American son trying to understand his overbearing, overworked nurse mom as they both grow older. It’s about bridging that gap — her speaking Bisaya, me speaking English — and finding love somewhere in between.

That’s what the process was really about. Learning to stop writing what I thought people wanted to hear, and finally writing what I lived.
Nurse the Dead became my way of honoring my mom — and the proud, unstoppable tradition of Filipino nursing around the world.

Who did you collaborate with on this project?

I was really blessed to collaborate with some incredible Filipino and American greats to bring Nurse the Dead to life.

From the very beginning, I consulted with Mami Ai, Princess Punzalan, Valerie Concepcion, and the great Ruby Rodriguez — true icons of Filipino cinema and television. They helped me find the emotional truth and authenticity in the story, grounding it in our shared culture.

I also worked closely with people who’ve believed in me from day one — Chef Marvin Aritrangco, Drea Castro, Jelyn Malone, and Andrew Bushwitz. These are friends and collaborators who showed up not just for the project, but for the purpose behind it.

And of course, our cast is incredible. Johari Johnson, who’s a series regular on a Tyler Perry show, and Pablo Azar, who’s a household name in Latin America, brought so much heart and professionalism. Every actor and every crew member here is someone I deeply respect — for their craft and for their humanity.

Honestly, there are so many more people whose names escape me at the top of my head right now — producers, artists, supporters — and every single one of them deserves to be thanked.

It’s proof that when you’re surrounded by good people with good hearts, you can move mountains. That’s how Nurse the Dead was built — not just with funding or luck, but with faith, friendship, and family.Was there a moment during the table read when you knew this project was special?

Oh, absolutely. I knew Nurse the Dead was special the day after I finished my very first draft.

We did a table read, just a small, humble one with friends and collaborators — and by the end, everyone was in tears. I thought, “Okay, maybe they’re just being polite.” But then the messages started rolling in. For an entire week. People were texting me about how much it moved them, how they saw their own moms in it, how they cried and laughed.

And here’s the thing… I love my friends, but they do NOT love me enough to lie to me. If something I write doesn’t land, they’ll tell me faster than my Filipino titas at karaoke night. I’ve written plenty of things that got the polite “Nice try, Mark.” This wasn’t that. This was a giant, unanimous yes.

That’s when I knew it was something bigger than me. It wasn’t just a script anymore — it was a story that hit people where it mattered. And that’s when I realized, Nurse the Dead wasn’t just mine anymore. It belonged to everyone who’s ever loved, lost, and still found the strength to laugh through it.

3. Artistic Vision
What message or emotion do you hope viewers take away from watching this?

What I really hope people take away from Nurse the Dead is that it’s okay to laugh, even while you’re grieving.

I grew up watching my mom, a single mom and a nurse, carry the weight of the world on her shoulders with a smile. Filipino nurses are like that. They serve, they heal, they endure and somehow, in between all the heartbreak, they still find a reason to laugh.

Having spent most of my own life in medicine, I’ve seen how heavy it gets. American healthcare can be brutal: emotionally, spiritually, systemically. But in those corridors of exhaustion, you also find the most beautiful kind of humanity. You see humor used as a life raft. You see love expressed through service.

That’s what Nurse the Dead is really about. Grief, yes… but also GRACE. It’s about learning to let go without losing the laughter, to find meaning in the mess, and to recognize that healing doesn’t always look solemn; sometimes, it looks like a smile through tears.

I don’t want people to walk away feeling sad. I want them to walk away feeling seen. To laugh, to cry, and to remember that love — especially the kind we inherit from people like my mom… never really dies.

How does this project reflect your growth or evolution as an artist?

Honestly, Nurse the Dead is probably the best proof that therapy works.

For years, I was that guy who wrote what I thought people wanted to hear… neat, polished, respectable stories. I’d workshop things to death because I was terrified of judgment. I was so busy trying to impress everyone that I forgot to actually say something true.

Then therapy, bless my psychiatrist’s patience, taught me to stop writing for validation and start writing from my damn heart. To stop worrying about the crab folks trying to pull everyone down and just… keep climbing out of the bucket.

And once I did that, Nurse the Dead poured out of me. It was messy, funny, emotional… and finally, mine.

I think that’s my evolution right there. I stopped trying to be the “good writer” and just tried to be an honest one. Turns out, that’s what people connect with most. And if not, well… my therapist and I will unpack it next week. heheAre there any unique elements you experimented with on this project?

Unique elements? Are you kidding me? The whole thing is unique.

Nurse the Dead is a Filipino-American supernatural dramedy about grief — but it’s also funny, irreverent, and full of heart. It’s about ghosts, nurses, and healing… all in one show. Hollywood didn’t know what to do with that. It didn’t fit any of their boxes.

And that’s exactly why I’m so grateful to Jaime, Mico, Jolly, Jane, Jelynn, Wesley, Drea, Marvin, and everyone for taking a chance on something this different. They didn’t just see a Filipino story; they saw a human story.

Because yes, it’s proudly Filipino, but it’s also universally relatable. The writing is sharp, the cast is fantastic, and every person behind this project poured their soul into it. I’ve been surrounded by people who really have my back, and that makes all the difference.

Does it sound like something people would want to watch? Honestly, I think once they see it, they’ll realize they’ve never seen anything quite like it… and that’s what makes it so delicious.4. Personal Connection
Does this project reflect something personal from your life or experience?

Absolutely. Nurse the Dead is probably the most personal thing I’ve ever done (after therapy).

It’s rooted in my own life, I was raised by a single mom who worked as a nurse. She’s strong, stubborn, funny, and endlessly giving. She’d come home after a double shift, bone-tired, but still find the energy to make sure I’d eaten. That kind of love shaped everything I am.

So yes… it’s personal. It’s about the world I grew up in, about being Filipino-American and caught between cultures, about trying to understand a mother who speaks Bisaya while I speak English, and realizing that love is its own language.

It also comes from my experience in medicine. I’ve spent most of my life in hospitals and on missions, even now, as I talk about this project, I’m out here in Panama providing care. So Nurse the Dead really sits at the crossroads of my two worlds: healing and storytelling.

At its heart, it’s my way of saying thank you — to my mom, to Filipino nurses everywhere, and to anyone who’s ever cared so deeply that it broke them a little. It’s funny, it’s painful, it’s hopeful… and it’s exactly the story I needed to tell.Were there any challenges or breakthroughs during the writing of this project?

Honestly, the hardest part hasn’t been writing Nurse the Dead — it’s been producing it.

People think the hard part is the blank page, but it’s really everything that comes after. I’m not backed by a giant American studio. HBO’s not cutting me a check for a few million to tell a story about a Filipino nurse and her overbearing ghost mom. It doesn’t fit the formula or feed the bottom line — and that’s okay.

An exec once told me I didn’t have “enough Americans” in a pitch — and that was seven years ago. I never forgot that.

And look, I do care what people say. I care deeply. But I don’t care about the opinions of people who only see stories through the lens of what lines their pockets. This story doesn’t require you to be Filipino to connect with it — you just have to know what love, grief, and family mean.

Because good storytelling — when it’s truly heartfelt — transcends labels. People will respond. Look at Everything Everywhere All at Once, Moonlight, Parasite, CODA — all independent, all deeply specific, and yet universally human. At one point, those stories were “too niche,” “too weird,” or “too risky” for someone with a checkbook… until they became timeless.

That’s what Nurse the Dead is to me. It’s proof that you don’t need millions — you just need meaning.

This project exists for a different reason. We’re doing this because we have something to say.

We’re not making a show built on spectacle — we’re making one built on heart. And that’s what makes me proudest. Despite not having studio money, we have community. We have ABS-CBN and iWantTFC, and people like Jaime, Mico, Jolly, and Jane, who believed in something that didn’t look like anything else out there.

It’s hard. It’s exhausting. But it’s real. And when you have something to say — something that means something — you find a way.

5. Looking AheadWhat’s next for you after this?

What’s next? I’m continuing work on my feature film CRAB… we just finished the sixth draft and are tightening it up. It’s been such a rewarding challenge to keep refining it, and I’m really excited for where it’s heading.

At the same time, Nurse the Dead continues to be such a meaningful focus. It’s been years in the making, and I feel really grateful to see it finally come to life.

So, I’m balancing both worlds — the filmmaker and the storyteller — and just trying to stay present and keep creating from a place of honesty. Everything I’m doing right now comes from the same intention: to tell stories that matter and to keep growing as an artist and a person.

Are you working on more shows?

Am I working on more shows? Oh, always. I think at this point I have about 200 scripts sitting in my WriterDuet — which probably says less about discipline and more about how therapy is expensive and writing is cheaper.

But really, I’ve wanted to do this for as long as I can remember. Writing has always been the place where I could take all the chaos — the grief, the absurdity, the noise — and turn it into something meaningful.

I’ve never been the loudest or the most connected person in the room, but I’ve always promised myself: if I can’t be the most talented, I’ll be the hardest working.

Right now, I’m tightening the sixth draft of my feature film CRAB — it’s messy, it’s painful, it’s hilarious — and I already have five seasons mapped out for Nurse the Dead. Because when something comes from love, you can’t help but keep building it.

I’m just so grateful to be creating with people I love dearly. At this point, I’m just trying to make the stories that make people feel seen — and if I can do that, then every sleepless night writing feels worth it.

What do you hope this project does for your career?

Honestly, I just hope it gives me the chance to pay back the faith people have had in me.

For this project, I gave up my own pay so that everyone else could get paid. Period. It’s not much. It’s not even close to fair. But at least they’re getting something. The people around me aren’t here for money; they’re here because this story means something to them… to us.

And that’s what keeps me going. Their belief in this project is the currency I hold on to. Someday, I’ll be able to repay that faith — to give back to everyone who showed up when we had nothing but a story and a dream.

That’s what I hope Nurse the Dead does for my career: that it opens the door for me to take care of the people who’ve taken care of me.

Because at the end of the day, that’s what this has always been about — building something with heart, honoring the people who believed before anyone else did, and proving that stories made with love will always find a way to live.6. Fun & Personality
If this project were a color, what would it be and why?

Pink. Like the heart. Teal like my mom’s favorite color.

What’s currently on your playlist? Who are you listening to right now?

My playlist? It’s a beautiful mess.

I’ve got early 2000s bangers, K-pop, Katseye, BINI, R&B, hip-hop, and, yes, even a little country. It’s the most confused playlist you’ve ever heard, like if Spotify had an identity crisis.

But honestly, that mix helps me write. Music reminds me that emotion has no borders. A good song, whether it’s in English, Tagalog, or Korean… can make you feel something you didn’t know you still had in you.

So when I’m writing, I pull from that same chaos. I want my stories to make people feel the way a great song does… a little nostalgic, a little heartbroken, a little healed.

And sometimes, when I’m really stuck, I just play 2000s Usher and convince myself I’m still twenty. It helps!

What’s one thing fans would be surprised to learn about your process?

People might be surprised to know that my writing process is both structured and a little unhinged.

I’m a big believer in craft: outlining, structure, the “right” way to do things. That comes from training and mentorship. You have to learn the rules before you can bend them to serve you. But once that’s set, I pour everything I have into it… the heart, the chaos, the kid in me who still believes stories can heal.

Sometimes I wake up at 4 a.m. and don’t leave my desk until 9 p.m. It’s not discipline anymore at that point — it’s mild insanity mixed with love. It’s me turning back into that little only child who used to play pretend for hours, by himself, creating whole worlds in his head.

The first draft? That’s where I let that kid run wild: no judgment, no fear, no filter. But by the ninth draft, I’ve aged about seventy years. I’m sitting there like a grumpy old man, muttering, “What have I done?” But still completely in love with this messy, wonderful thing I made.

That’s writing for me. It’s discipline, yes, but it’s also childlike wonder and adult exhaustion holding hands. It’s chaos with a heartbeat and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.