EMT to the Stars

New Jersey business owner Justin Tsai provides EMS coverage for major film, TV, and live productions.

“Nice Work If You Can Get It” is the title of a well-known Gershwin Broadway tune, and an apt description for the career of Justin G. Tsai, NREMT, BSN, who is literally an “EMT to the stars.”

Based in Paramus, NJ, his Tsai Mobile Health LLC has been providing on-site EMS support to an astounding array of major film, TV, and live productions since this Township of Washington Ambulance Corps (Bergen County, NJ) EMT founded it on August 4, 2020.

As Tsai shared with EMS World, “If anyone had gone up to teenaged me and told me that, in less than 10 years, my EMT career would bring me from my humble beginnings in small-town Washington Township to being invited to attend private parties with the likes of Matt Rogers [Have You Heard of Christmas, Las Culturistas, Fire Island], Doron Max Hagay [director, Saturday Night Live], Bowen Yang [host, Las Culturistas], and Meghann Fahy [actress, White Lotus, Chicago Fire, Law and Order, Blue Bloods], I would have been in disbelief!”

How He Got Into It

Even before establishing Tsai Mobile Health, Tsai had been providing EMT services to commercial shoots and modeling shows for clients such as Cadillac, International Women's Day: Maybelline, and Red Lobster. However, his big break into the A-list world didn’t come until February 2021, six months after he had founded Tsai Mobile Health and had been working full time with Washington Township.

“My first celebrity gig was working the pilot episode of Pause with Sam Jay for a week in various New York locations for HBO,” he said. “I got it because my name was already listed on a website for industry insiders. Someone from the show saw my credentials and felt I was the right person for the job.”

Word spread and more job offers quickly followed. It didn’t take long for his “EMT to the Stars” business to become his full-time job, and for his resume of completed celebrity jobs to blossom.

“Discovery Channel flew me all the way to Seattle to work with the crew of the TV show Deadliest Catch,” shared Tsai. “I got to work hand-in-hand with their crew and cast until they went to Norway and a medical team there took over. I still brag to my friends about having pictures of Sig Hansen’s backyard on my phone; I even used his kitchen as an office for a bit and spoke to his wife and neighbors.”

Meanwhile, Tsai’s selfie with Matt Rogers has been published on news outlets nationwide.

“He’s a really down-to-earth guy, and when he invited me to his private party he made it a point to shake my hand and say hello,” Tsai related. “I remember at one point looking over and noticing a young lady who seemed to just command everyone’s attention. It turns out I was partying with Meghann Fahy, who played Nicki Rutkowski on Chicago Fire and also starred in Law and Order and Blue Bloods. Whether it be running into a Chicago Fire star at a party with coworkers or working for household names and faces like Michael Biehn [Terminators, X-Men] or of course Barbara Corcoran [Shark Tank], going to work and looking up and seeing an all-too-familiar face from a favorite show or the big screen is really just a new normal for me now.”

But the life of a celebrity EMT isn’t all fun on set, selfies and parties, said Tsai, who has been called on to render medical assistance on multiple occasions.

“On one occasion during a shoot for a rural countryside movie, our main actor reached into a bag—not realizing there was an open knife inside,” he recalled. “That knife sliced our actor down the middle of his finger through an artery, causing a bleed that could not be stopped until we got to the emergency department.” Tsai treated a similar serious injury during the Sam Jay show. “Finger lacerations—not so much against paper but against sharp blades and scissors—seem to be a common theme across several shows that I worked on,” he said.

How He Gets the Job

How do you become an EMT to the stars?

“In some ways this is a legit trade secret,” Tsai said. “As far as how I first got myself into the industry, I was noticed by a producer who thought I had the skills and potential to succeed here, so he recruited me. I originally served on food commercials and quickly expanded into other forms of commercials as well as some modeling gigs, all thanks to a small group of clients who passed my name around from one to another.”

Knowing that “sizzle sells” in the entertainment business, Tsai got serious about marketing his services. “I learned how to make my own portfolio and hired a graphic design artist to improve the advertising,” he said. "I eventually worked my way up to getting invited to some exclusive, invitation-only online forums in which I could use my portfolio to network to producers, directors, showrunners, project organizers, celebrities, and their representatives.”

Hard work paid off. By the summer of 2021, Tsai Mobile Health had so many entertainment industry projects that Tsai began hiring other EMTs to help.

“Not only was I picking up more clients and their projects through my advertising, but my company received a large boost from positive word-of-mouth referrals amongst various clients, as well as a number of repeat clients who asked me to return over and over again for one project after another,” he said. “I am pleased to have won the respect of many repeat clients, including Netflix, CBS, Wellmont Theater, Live Nation Entertainment, The Bench, Stone Pony, Barbara Corcoran, The Bindery NYC, and Vox Media.”

Tsai can be reached at https://linktr.ee/justingtsai.