Dr roy vongtama biography

It’s rare that an oncologist-actor (yes, you read that right) gets to audition for a part tailor-made for an oncologist-actor. So it was a bit of a shock for Roy Vongtama (MD ’00), who is a board-certified radiation oncologist and working actor, when a 2007 casting call for such a role ended with him not getting the part.

“The casting director said, ‘I’m not buying it.

When a doctor tells a patient she has cancer, the doctor should get emotional,’” recalls Vongtama, a Buffalo native who has since landed roles on screens both big (“The Bucket List”) and small (“Scandal,” “The Shield,” “NCIS: Los Angeles”). “I replied, ‘Well, I am a cancer doctor, and if I did that, it would be pretty scary for the patient.’”

The rejection was a minor hiccup in an unorthodox yet successful career that began shortly after Vongtama’s graduation fro