Kristin Villanueva

Kristin Villanueva was born and raised in Manila in the Philippines. She immigrated to the United States when she was 15 years old and settled in Virginia. She initially did ballet to accommodate her asthma, but began acting in a high school program.^[1]

She attended SUNY Purchase where she earned her Bachelor in Fine Arts and was awarded the Chair's Award for Achievement in Acting.^[2]

Villanueva was in various small acting and theatre roles throughout her high school and college years, a large concentration during her time at SUNY Purchase, where she studied acting.^[2]

In theatre, she has starred as Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Old Globe Theatre; Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice with the Playmakers Repertory; Helena in All's Well That Ends Well with Shakespeare & Company; and Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors at Theatreworks Colorado.^[2] She has also worked with NAATCO, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Resident Ensemble Theatre, The Public Theater, and acted at the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival and the Singapore Arts Festival.^[2]

In 2025, Villanueva started the role as Princess, a nurse, in the medical drama The Pitt. She praised the show and the production team for "having done their research" in writing her character. Filipinos make up 4% of the United States' nurses, the largest group of immigrant healthcare workers, while only making up 1% of the general population. Villanueva has several nurses in her extended family, and she mentions that they were "extremely impressed" with the show's attention to detail.^[1][3][4]