Sartaj Singh
With Michael Grassi at the helm, ‘Brilliant Minds’ centers on Dr. Oliver Wolf, a genius neurologist with face blindness and a bottomless capacity for compassion and empathy. Working at the Bronx General Hospital in NYC, Dr. Wolf employs experimental and unconventional methods that often get him in hot water with his colleagues and superiors. However, naysayers are left speechless when his methods prove groundbreaking and shine a light on the mysteries of the human mind. The NBC medical drama takes inspiration from Dr. Oliver Sacks, his real-life cases, and his books: ‘An Anthropologist on Mars’ and ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.’ The show follows Dr. Wolf’s extraordinary life in New York City as he works in the Bronx and regularly swims in the Hudson River.
Brilliant Minds Filming Locations
Filming for ‘Brilliant Minds’ takes place in the province of Ontario, more specifically, in Toronto, Hamilton, and Mississauga. A production unit also travels to New York and captures landscape shots to establish the show’s settings. Tentatively titled ‘Dr. Wolf,’ principal photography for the debut season began on April 8, 2024, and wrapped by August 6 of the same year. Under the title of ‘Wolf,’ the show initially shot its pilot episode between March 27 and April 14, 2023. Owing to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, further production was postponed to 2024. The cast and crew seem very invested in the project, and they also have a fair bit of fun behind the scenes.
Mississauga, Ontario
‘Brilliant Minds’ is primarily filmed at a studio in Mississauga, Ontario. The production team set up shop at the William F. White Heritage Studio at 6110 Cantay Road. The massive 181,000-square-foot facility boasts four soundstages that are used to create sets for the recurring interiors that feature in ‘Brilliant Minds.’ These include the office and hospital interiors seen in the series, which are fabricated under the expertise of production designer Khanh Quach and set decorator Friday Myers. “One of the things ‘Brilliant Minds’ showrunner (Michael Grassi) has always said is he wants layers so that all of our sets and locations feel lived-in, real,” wrote executive producer DeMane Davis on Instagram. “The best set designers can do that in their sleep. I have been honored to have now worked with Friday Myers on two shows.”
Toronto, Ontario
The production team also films ‘Brilliant Minds’ using locales in Toronto, Ontario. Known as the Hollywood of the North alongside Vancouver, the city is often employed as a filming location by productions looking to simulate another city. Toronto’s downtown area is about 30 minutes away from the Heritage Studio and can provide convenient access to on-location filming sites for its episodes. ‘Brilliant Minds’ is the latest in a long list of movies and shows that have used Toronto to simulate New York backgrounds; these include ‘American Psycho,’ the Bollywood blockbuster ‘Kal Ho Na Ho,’ and Prime Video’s ‘The Boys.’
Hamilton, Ontario
The port city of Hamilton in the province of Ontario also becomes a filming location for ‘Brilliant Minds’ at times. The pilot episode of the show was filmed for 10 days along Beach Boulevard, a picturesque and thin strip of land crossing over Lake Ontario. For shooting the first season, the production team returned to Hamilton once again, this time rolling cameras on Gage Avenue North. There, filming was carried out in June 2024 on industrial land between Burlington Street East and Industrial Drive.
New York City, New York
To realistically depict its setting of New York, the show sent a production unit to NYC for the first season. The Bronx Hospital where Dr. Wolf works is actually the Triboro Center. Located at 1160 Teller Avenue, Bronx, the rehabilitation center was formerly known as the Daughters of Jacob Nursing Home, and its unique structure can be seen as Dr. Wolf rolls through its gate on a motorcycle. Other establishing shots of recognizable NYC landscapes are also featured in the show, including those of the Hudson River.
Read More: Is Brilliant Minds a True Story? Is Oliver Wolf Based on a Real Neurologist?
