List of Grey's Anatomy Characters

Grey's Anatomy '''is an American television series created by Shonda Rhimes, and is broadcast by ABC. The show features an ensemble cast of regular characters, with nine main characters in its first season. Since the first season, many characters have left the show or have been written out, with new main characters having been both written in and out of the series.

Main Characters
The following is a list of all current and previous main characters who have featured iGrey's Anatomy. The characters are listed in alphabetical order.

Meredith and Lexie Grey's Family:
Ellis Grey (Kate Burton, Sarah Paulson (1982 flashback): Meredith's mother. She was a highly respected surgeon who trained at Seattle Grace with Dr. Webber. During their residency, she and Webber had an affair; she left her husband Thatcher for him, but he could not bring himself to leave his wife. After her residency, she left Seattle to take a position at Massachusetts General. She also worked at the Mayo Clinic. She won the Harper Avery Award twice, and she invented the laprascopic Grey method. She developed early onset Alzheimer's shortly before Meredith started medical school, and at the start of the show she had been placed in Roseridge Home for Extended Care, a nursing home. She died in the middle of season three of cardiac arrest. In "Drowning on Dry Land" she appears to her daughter encouraging her to back and live her life. She also appeared in an alternative reality episode from season eight, called "If/then".

Thatcher Grey (Jeff Perry): Father of Meredith and Lexie Grey. He was married to Ellis Grey, Meredith's mother, for about seven years. They divorced after she had an affair with Richard Webber. Thatcher blames Ellis somewhat for his estrangement from Meredith, saying Ellis was "cold" and wouldn't let him get to know his daughter. After the disintegration of his first family, Thatcher remained in Seattle and married his second wife, Susan. They had two daughters, Lexie and Molly. After Meredith moved to Seattle for her residency, Susan encouraged Thatcher and Meredith to develop a relationship. However, Susan's sudden death devastated Thatcher, and he blamed her death on Meredith. He became an alcoholic, and Lexie had to give up a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital to move to Seattle to care for her father. He eventually went to rehab and apologised to his daughters; however, his alcoholism had destroyed his liver, and Meredith had to give him a portion of hers to save his life.

Susan Grey (Mare Winningham): The second wife of Thatcher Grey, and mother of Lexie Grey and Molly Grey Thompson. Susan was always aware of Thatcher's first wife and daughter, but she didn't meet Meredith until Molly was a patient at Seattle Grace. She reached out to Meredith and encouraged her to develop a relationship with Thatcher. At first, Meredith resisted Susan's attempts to mother her, but eventually she came to think of Susan as a surrogate mother. Susan died suddenly, following a rare complication from a routine procedure to treat her acid reflux and hiccups. Thatcher was devastated by her death and became an alcoholic.

Molly Grey Thompson (Mandy Siegfried): Daughter of Thatcher and Susan Grey, and Lexie's younger sister and Meredith's half sister. She proposed to her husband, Eric, before he was shipped out by the military to be stationed in Iraq. Originally a patient at Mercy West, Molly transferred to Seattle Grace when she was 32 weeks pregnant and Addison operated to repair a congenital diaphragmatic hernia on Molly's baby. She later gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Laura.

Laura Thompson: Daughter of Molly Grey and Eric Thompson. Was born premature and was kept at Seattle Grace Hospital several weeks after her birth, prompting her grandfather to hang around.

Zola Shepherd: Adoptive daughter of Meredith and Derek. She was brought over with the children from Africa, under the direction of Karev in season seven. She suffered from a spinal disease, but was treated by directed with a shunt.

Derek Shepherd's Family:
Carolyn Maloney Shepherd (Tyne Daly): Derek's mother. Cared for Derek and his sisters after her husband was murdered.

Addison Montgomery: Derek's ex-wife who cheated on him with Mark. She comes to Seattle at Richard's request and the two attempt to reconcile. She ultimately moves to Los Angeles.

Kathleen Shepherd: One of Derek's sisters. Only mentioned on the show.

Nancy Shepherd (Embeth Davidtz): One of Derek's sisters. She slept with Mark as stated in the episode "Let The Angels Commit" when she told him "Come on Derek. Everyone sleeps with Mark."

Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone): Derek's sister and the youngest Shepherd child. She and Derek witnessed their father being murdered. She became addicted to prescription medication before crashing Derek's car while under the influence. Amelia works with Addison in Los Angeles and Amelia also slept with Mark as did Nancy and Addison before her.

Zola Shepherd: Adoptive daughter of Meredith and Derek.

Cristina Yang's Family:
Helen Yang Rubenstein (Tsai Chin): Cristina's mother. Helen and Cristina's father divorced, and she remarried Dr. Saul Rubenstein, an oral surgeon, when Cristina was three. She thinks Cristina should focus more on getting married and less on her career.

Izzie Stevens' Family:
Robbie Stevens (Sharon Lawrence): Izzie's mother. She works as a waitress.

Hannah Klein (Liv Hutchings): Izzie's biological daughter, born when Izzie was sixteen years old. In the third season, Hannah is admitted to Seattle Grace Hospital with leukaemia, and Izzie donates bone marrow to her. However, Hannah refuses to see her.

Richard Webber's Family:
Adele Webber (Loretta Devine): Dr. Webber's wife. She was frequently frustrated by his devotion to the hospital, and she eventually left him. She became pregnant with his child but had a miscarriage. They have since reconciled. She was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Camille Travis (Tessa Thompson/Camille Winbush): Daughter of Adele's sister Ariene and Dr. Webber and Adele's niece. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was fourteen, and the cancer returned when she was a senior in high school. Dr. Bailey ordered the interns to plan a prom in the hospital for her.

Arlene Travis (Shelley Robertson): Adele's sister and Camille's mother.

George O'Malley's Family:
Harold O'Malley (George Dzundza): Father of George O'Malley. He was a truck driver was a passion for vintage cars. He was married for forty years to his wife, Louise, and they had three sons: Jerry, Ronny and George. He was very proud of all of his sons, but he often had trouble relating to George. He was admitted to Seattle Grace with oesophageal cancer that had spread to his stomach, as well as a leaking aortic valve. He underwent surgery to replace his aortic valve, which was successful, and later had a second surgery to determine the extent of the cancer. Prior to the second surgery, he had asked Dr. Webber and Dr. Bailey to remove the tumour regardless of the risk in order to give him a chance to fight the cancer. The surgery proved too much for his body, and after several days, he went into multi-system organ failure, which prompted the family to take him off life support.

Louse O'Malley (Debra Monk): George's mother. She works as a teacher. George seems to find her a little overbearing, and is often embarrassed by her good-natures gestures, such as setting out breakfast for the interns during rounds and offering to iron his scrubs. She is a devout Catholic, and she is very upset when George and Callie get divorced.

Jerry O'Malley (Greg Pitts): George's brother. He works at a dry cleaners.

Ronny O'Malley (Tim Griffin): George's brother. He works at the post office.

Alex Karev's Family:
Aaron Karev (Jake McLaughlin): Alex's younger brother. He works as a mover. He is very nice and polite, which is why Cristina named him "Angel Spawn" while she calls Alex "Evil Spawn". He comes to Seattle Grace with a hernia, which Dr. Bailey successfully repairs. He's very chatty and tells the doctors about his and Alex's troubled childhood. He is later diagnosed with schizophrenia after he suffers a psychotic break and tries to kill his younger sister, Amber. As a result, he had been committed to a psychiatric ward.

Amber Karev: Alex's younger sister. She is a high school student. Aaron is trying to convince her to go to college, but she doesn't see the point.

Miranda Bailey's Family:
Tucker Jones: Miranda's ex-husband who divorced her because she spent more time working than at home with him and Tuck. Tucker was operated on by Derek when he got into a car accident on his way to the hospital for their son's birth.

William George "Tuck" Bailey Jones: Miranda's son with her ex-husband Tucker.

Mark Sloan's Family:
Sloane Riley (Leven Rambin): Mark's biological daughter. As an 18 year old, she gives birth to Mark's grandson and puts him up for adoption.

Sofia Torres: Mark's daughter with Callie Torres. She was born prematurely as Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres on March 31, 2011. She was conceived after Mark and Callie began several trysts when the latter was left in the airport by Arizona Robbins.

Grandson: Mark's grandson through Sloan who was given up for adoption.

Teddy Altman's Family:
Henry Burton (Scott Foley): Husband of Dr. Teddy Altman. She meets him and marries him in season seven so that he can use her health insurance to cover the ongoing costs of his treatment for Von Hippel-Lindau disease. He dies in season eight while undergoing surgery.

Callie Torres's Family:
Carlos Torres (Hector Elizondo): Father to Callie Torres. He originally was against his daughter's homosexuality and relationship with Dr. Arizona Robbins.

Lucia Torres (Gina Gallego): Mother to Dr. Callie Torres. She has problems with accepting her daughter's sexuality and refused to attend her wedding to Arizona Robbins.

Aria Torres: Callie's sister. Only mentioned on the show.

Uncle Berto: Callie's uncle, whom she assumed might be gay aswell, stating that "he hasn't been single for sixty years for no reason".

Sofia Torres: Daughter. She was born prematurely as Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres on March 31, 2011. She was conceived after Mark and Callie began several trysts when the latter was left in the airport by Arizona Robbins.

Arizona Robbins: Wife/Civil Partner. Paediatric surgery attending, comes from a military family and graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Arizona Robbins' Family:
Colonel Daniel Robbins (Denis Arndt): United States Marine Corps and Arizona's father.

Barbara Robbins (Judith Ivey): Arizona's mother.

Timothy Robbins: Arizona's brother. He died in the Iraq war.

Sofia Torres: Daughter/Stepdaughter. She was born prematurely as Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres on March 31, 2011. She was conceived after Mark and Callie began several trysts when the latter was left in the airport by Arizona. She's not legally biologically related to Arizona, but Callie and Arizona agreed on getting some sort of paper that would give Arizona some rights as Sofia's parent.

Callie Torres: Wife/Civil Partner. Head of orthopaedic surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital.

Jackson Avery's Family:
Dr. Harper Avery: Harper is the grandfather of Jackson and a world renowned surgeon.

Dr. Catherine Avery: Avery's mother and brilliant urological surgeon, appeared at Seattle Grace Mercy West to perform the "first" penis transplant in the US. She also proctored the boards in San Francisco, when she also had a one night tryst with Dr. Webber.

Other Minor Characters

 * Joe the Bartender (Steven W. Bailey): The owner of the Emerald City Bar, located across from the hospital, where the doctors often go for a drink. Joe collapsed due to an aneurysm in "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head", and Derek and Burke performed a stand-still surgery to repair it. Joe and his boyfriend Walter attended the Thanksgiving Izzie hosted at Meredith's house, and they went on a camping trip with Dr. Shepherd, Burke, Webber, Karev and O'Malley. During this trip, Joe revealed during a discussion with the Chief that although he and Walter had been "on-and-off" for about ten years, they were now committed and considering the possibility of children. They are one of two couples being considered as adoptive parents for a young mother's twins.
 * Walter (Brian Reid/Jack Yang): Joe's boyfriend. Walter has been played by Jack Yang in all of his appearances except in the episode "Let It Be", where he is played by Brian Reid.
 * Bonnie Crasnoff (Monica Keena): A patient admitted to Seattle Grace Hospital after being in a train crash. She and another passenger, Tom, were connected by a large metal pole passing through their bodies. Since moving the pole would kill them, the doctors decided to move one of the patients off the pole, then operate around the pole to repair the damage in the other patient. Since her injuries were more severe, they decided to move her, and she died almost immediately. Bonnie reappeared in season three as part of Meredith's dream after drowning.
 * Dennison "Denny" Duquette, Jr. (Jeffrey Dean Morgan): A patient waiting for a heart transplant. He developed a close relationship with Izzie Stevens, and eventually proposed to her. Izzie risked her career to save him by cutting his LVAD wire, insuring that he would become so ill that he would get a new heart. He died shortly after the transplant from a blood clot. He reappeared in season three, as part of Meredith's dream after drowning, and again in season five. Izzie began to see Denny everywhere, which was eventually revealed to be a symptom of her brain tumour. He first appeared in the season two episode, "Begin the Begin", and made his last appearance in the season five episode "Here's to Future Days".
 * Dylan Young (Kyle Chandler): The commanding officer of the Seattle PD bomb squad that responded to the bomb scare. He helped to keep Meredith calm as she held the bomb located inside a patient's body. She removed the bomb safely from the patient, but it exploded while Dylan carried it out of the OR. He reappeared in season three as part of Meredith's dream after drowning.
 * Amanda (Shannon Lucio): A young woman saved from being hit by a bus by George, who was subsequently dragged several yards by the bus. Amanda was extremely concerned about him, and she stayed with him in the ICU and referred to him as "her prince." She attended George's funeral and cried harder than his own mother. Amanda kept a daily vigil outside the hospital until Izzie confronted her, pointing out that she was still alive thanks to George, and that she should honour him by living her life.
 * Rebecca Pope or Ava (Elizabeth Reaser): A patient suffering from amnesia after being badly injured in the ferry crash. She was discovered by Dr. Alex Karev, and they developed a very close relationship. While at Seattle Grace, she delivered a baby girl and underwent facial reconstruction surgery, performed by Dr. Mark Sloan. She eventually regained her memory and went home with her husband, Jeff, although before leaving she pleaded with Alex to "give her a reason to stay." She returned six weeks later claiming to be pregnant with his child. Although initially upset, Alex eventually became excited about having a baby with her; however, it was revealed that she was suffering from a hysterical pregnancy. When she attempted suicide, Izzie intervened and had her admitted to the psychiatric ward. Elizabeth Reaser was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series at the 59th Ceremony, for her role on the show.
 * Gary Clark (Michael O'Neill): Husband of a patient at Seattle Grace. His wife was treated by Dr. Lexie Grey and Dr. Webber. After surgery his wife went into a coma, and since she had earlier signed a DNR, she was taken off of life support. Clark filed a lawsuit against Dr. Shepherd for wrongful death, but lost. In the season six finale, he returned to the hospital intending to kill Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Lexie Grey and Dr. Webber. He ended up shooting several other people, including Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Owen Hunt, Reed Adamson, Charles Percy and Alex Karev. After a tense standoff with Dr. Webber, he used his last bullet to commit suicide instead of killing Dr. Webber.
 * Mary Portman (Mandy Moore): She was Miranda Bailey's patient during the Seattle Grace shooting. She is the wife of Bill Portman. She helped Miranda attempt to save the life of Charles Percy and despite their efforts he died. She returned to the hospital six months later to have the colostomy reversal she was supposed to have the day of the shooting. The surgery was successful, but sadly, Mary never woke up. She was taken off of life support one month later and died.
 * Bill Portman (Ryan Devlin): Husband of Mary Portman.