TOFA honoree Tootsie Guevara is returning to entertainment with a new single and a role in a newly premiered Filipino American series, marking a continued comeback after years in the healthcare field.
Guevara recently released “It’s Tootsie,” accompanied by a music video, as she resumes recording. She also joins the cast of “Nurse the Dead,” a Filipino-led supernatural workplace comedy created by Mark Labella that premiered June 12, Philippine Independence Day, on the iWant streaming platform. The series follows Noa Reyes, a Filipina nurse promoted to supervise the most haunted ward in a Los Angeles hospital, where the staff is chaotic, the patients are demanding and the dead will not stop talking.
Billed as the first scripted U.S. series to place Filipino healthcare workers at its center, it highlights the humor, community and immigrant family dynamics drawn from the Filipino nursing experience in America. Guevara stars alongside Jelynn Malone, Gigette Reyes, Anthony Jennings, Princess Punzalan, Ruby Rodriguez, Johari Johnson and Pablo Azar.
Born Emma Theresa Pinga, Guevara rose to fame in the 1990s as a recording artist, releasing hits including “Kaba,” “Pasulyap-Sulyap,” “Nang Dahil Sa Pag-Ibig” and “Mahal Ka Sa Akin.” She later stepped away from show business and moved to the United States in 2004.
Now based in California, she built a career in healthcare and currently works in hospital administration, balancing her professional life with a renewed presence in music and acting. In 2024, Guevara was recognized as a national awardee at The Outstanding Filipino Awards (TOFA) held in Honolulu, honoring her contributions to music and her professional achievements outside entertainment.
Her return to acting reflects a full-circle moment — a former pop star and healthcare executive portraying a nurse on screen in a comedy that finally puts Filipino nurses and healthcare workers at the center of the story.
