Daytime Emmy-winner Jeff Kober, who took home the Outstanding Supporting Actor prize for his portrayal of Cyrus Renault on General Hospital in 2022, is joining the cast of one of television’s most acclaimed series. When the HBO smash The Pitt returns for its second season in January 2026, it will feature Kober in the recurring role of Duke.
Pitt Stop
Kober first joined GH in 2000 as the menacing mobster Cyrus, who was ultimately revealed to be the surprise half brother of series mainstay Laura Collins (Genie Francis).
The character was killed off in February 2025 when he was shot to death by Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy), who had been on a mission to prove that Cyrus was responsible for the demise of her boyfriend, Dex Heller (Evan Hofer). Cyrus’s list of victims also included one of the show’s all-time most popular characters.
Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco), who he murdered in 2024 by injecting her with a lethal dose of digitalis as she recovered from the surgery to donate part of her liver to an ailing Lulu Spencer (Alexa Havins), Cyrus’s niece.
Speaking exclusively to Soap Opera Digest about his exit, Kober shared, “I gotta tell you, I love acting on a soap. It’s so dangerous for an actor to let go and let the scene happen, and General Hospital gave me an opportunity to practice that letting go, day after day after day, and I relished that. And I will miss that.”
The Pitt is a medical drama that stars and is executive produced by Noah Wyle and is set in the fictional, high-stakes world of the emergency department at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Its action unfolds in real time, and the new season takes place over the course of the 4th of July holiday weekend. Kober’s new alter ego, Duke, is described by Deadline as “a motorcycle engineer who goes way back with one of the doctors.”
The show took home multiple prestigious awards for its first season, winning Outstanding Drama Series honors at the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards along with acting prizes for Wyle and Katherine LaNasa, and was Program of the Year and Outstanding New Program by the Television Critics Association.
Kober is not the only Daytime Emmy-winning soap alum that The Pitt’s new season will feature; Brittany Allen, who played Marissa Tasker on All My Children and won the Outstanding Younger Actress trophy in 2011, is also joining the cast in a recurring capacity.
She will play Roxie Hamler, Deadline reports, who is a patient treated by the medical center’s staff. Allen’s other major acting credits since wrapping up her AMC stint include the role of Ella Riordan on the NBC series Taken and playing Charlotte/Popclaw in Amazon’s hit superhero show The Boys.
