Mekki Leeper’s Journey: ‘Jury Duty’ to ‘St. Denis Medical’

For Emmy-nominated writer and performer Mekki Leeper, there is.

The 30-year-old plays a freshly minted nurse in “St. Denis Medical,” a fall comedy that looks at the struggles health care workers face.

Shot in a mockumentary style, the series — which also stars David Alan Grier and Wendy McLendon Covey — covers all aspects of the business, from administration to support staff. St. Denis has more than its share of its problems and, on his first day of work, Leeper’s character isn’t solving many of them.

“Matt has a hunger to learn,” Leeper says. “At first glance you might just think he’s comic fodder, that he’s like the dumb guy, but he’s not. He wants to be a nurse and he wants to grow. That’s what’s so admirable about the character — and it’s a little scary. It’s given me tremendous respect for all healthcare workers every day.”

Before “St. Denis” landed on his resume, Leeper was a writer and performer on “Jury Duty,” the Amazon series that took a similar approach to serving on a jury. The difference? One member of the jury was not an actor and had no idea what was transpiring. The surprise element made a star out of Ronald Gladden, a solar contractor from San Diego, who bought into the courtroom shenanigans.

Leeper played a fellow juror, Noah Price, a rideshare driver who’s upset he’s missing his vacation because he’s on jury duty.