Posted in: ABC, NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: a.p. bio, Scrubs

Scrubs: Eddie Leavy on Initial Approach to Raffi, Top AP Bio Memories

Eddie Leavy discusses whether he felt pressure to meet expectations for the Scrubs revival and shares his favorite memories from A.P. Bio.

Eddie Leavy is as humble and talented as they come, flourishing in Hollywood since bursting onto the scene in 2013. Working his way up, he's appeared on several shows, including Comedy Central's Tosh.0, Netflix's Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever. His biggest break came on the NBC/Peacock high school sitcom A.P. Bio as Anthony Lewis, a smart and sassy AP Biology student with immersive strength and a talented singing voice, appearing in all 42 episodes across four seasons from 2018-2021. The Mike O'Brien-created series followed disgraced Harvard philosophy professor Jack Griffin (Glenn Howerton), who loses his dream job and finds work at Whitlock High School teaching advanced placement biology, but has ulterior motives to use his resources to get back at his rival, Miles Leonard (Tom Bennett). While promoting his latest sitcom in the ABC revival of Scrubs, Leavy spoke to Bleeding Cool on how he approached his character Raffi and if he felt pressure to succeed given his fandom of the original series, and his favorite standout moments from his time on A.P. Bio, including the best friend he made with Sari Arambulo, who plays Grace, and working with the late director Lynn Shelton.

In the Scrubs revival, Leavy plays Sacred Heart's IT specialist Raffi, introduced in episode three, "My Rom-Com," where Elliot (Sarah Chalke) is trying to buy time for a potentially terminally ill patient to be reunited with her estranged husband to reconsider her objection to a heart device that will prolong her life. To buy time, Carla (Judy Reyes) refers Elliot to Raffi, who implements a software update behind her ex and Chief of Medicine JD's (Zach Braff) back, who wants to honor the patient's wishes and discharge her. The following contains minor spoilers.

Scrubs: Eddie Leavy on If He Felt Any Pressure to Make a Good First Impression, and Two Favorite A.P. Bio Episodes

Did you feel any pressure as far as like, "Okay, this is the introduction of my character, and I'm trying to knock it out of the park?" Or did you frame it like another job and try to get the ball rolling here?

Yeah, I felt a lot of pressure establishing my character. I think there's also some pressure when someone is envisioning you for a role from the beginning. You want to match what they envisioned, or maybe show them something that wasn't in their heads but still fits in that world. It's a beautiful problem to have, but you're like, "Okay, the first time they're really seeing what I'm doing is when the camera is rolling, and you want to rise to that occasion, especially when it's the revival of Scrubs, especially when it's Bill Lawrence and Aseem Batra.

All these factors made me want to be my best, but I came prepared. I came up with my idea of the character, like I said, seeing his office and the costumes helped me build and tap into that energy. The pressure was on, and you hoped you made a good impression. When I got that call that they wanted me to come back for another episode, I felt like, "Okay, they liked what I did." When I came back for another episode, Zach again gave me a big hug and was like, "Oh my gosh, your stuff in 103 was incredible, we loved it," and they don't bring you back if they don't think you're funny. You're down [there] for a reason.

There are so many different anecdotes, and I remember watching it early on the original series run, how originally, Janitor wasn't even supposed to be interacting with other characters. He just became a fully fleshed-out character because he was supposed to be a hallucination in J.D.'s mind, and then he expanded to interact with other people. There are so many of the supporting cast who have such fuller stories, and I can't wait to see what's in store for Raffi.

I want to change the subject since earlier, you brought up A.P. Bio. I always thought the show was on the cusp, not even at its peak, when it got canceled. I've always appreciated everything about it, and Anthony was one of my favorite characters there. What's your favorite moment?

Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for watching that show. That A.P. Bio hive is so strong, like I still get stopped by wonderful people who express their love for that show, and I always say that show is a gift that keeps on giving. Michael O'Brien, I am obsessed with that man. He saw me, knew what to do with me, and gave me really what felt like this beautiful playground to play in. I love that show and being a part of it.

My favorite moment from A.P. Bio…I must give a shout-out to the friendships I made on that show that are so important to me. Sari Arambulo (Grace) is one of my best friends to this day. We were on the phone for like two hours last night, and she and I did A.P. Bio: The Podcast, and we did a movie together, Bloody Axe Wound (2024). We are also working on our own television projects, so that friendship is one I adore and cherish. What was so cool about A.P. Bio is that as the seasons went on, the writers started to get to know you or started to see your dynamic. They started writing about that, saw that Sari and I had become best friends, and started incorporating it. We had a whole storyline about being best friends, and that was so cool. We had a cool dance episode (season one's "Walleye") where we had a best friend dance together, so to have that immortalized on TV is just incredible.

I have another shout-out; they gave me an incredible (season three) episode called "Aces Wild," where I was wrestling against Ron Funches (Hans), and I mean to read that script, have no idea it's coming, and then in a couple of days, be in wrestling training with Ryan (Nemeth), a (former) WWE wrestler (now with TNA Wrestling). I think his wrestling name is the Hollywood Hunk, to be literal (working with him), getting these custom fits of my different wrestling outfits to work opposite Ron. It was just so big, and it was also the week before the pandemic [laughs]. We were also getting hints of, "Wait, what's going on?" We're wearing masks, and like the last day of the episode, where I'm doing the match against Ron, was our last day of production before the pandemic hit. I have a lot of memories of just that moment, because they gave me such a showcase to flex all my different muscles, skills, and be so physical with the comedy, so I'm so grateful. Shelly Gossman wrote that episode with Brendan Jennings. Oz Rodriguez directed it, and all these people I love to this day.

Also, since we're talking about A.P. Bio, I have another shout-out. One of my first storylines on that show was in season two (episode two "Nuns"), an episode where we go into Anthony's grandmother's church to steal a statue with Jack, and that was such a beautiful episode. I was directed by the late Lynn Shelton, who was one of my favorite directors on A.P. Bio, because there were a lot of layers on that episode, and she really pulls so much out of me. Working with Lynn Shelton is something I will never forget.

All four seasons of A.P. Bio, which also stars Lyric Lewis, Mary Sohn, Jean Villepique, Patton Oswalt, and Paula Pell, are available to stream on Peacock. New episodes of Scrubs, which also stars Donald Faison, Joel Kim Booster, Ava Bunn, Jacob Dudman, David Gridley, Layla Mohammadi, Amanda Morrow, X Mayo, Michael James Scott, John C. McGinley, and Vanessa Bayer, air Wednesdays on ABC and are available to stream the following day.

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