Meredith Grey

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Meredith Grey

Grey's Anatomy character

Promotional image of Ellen Pompeo as

Dr. Meredith Grey

First appearance Grey's Anatomy:

"A Hard Day's Night" (1.01)

March 27, 2005

Station 19:

"Stuck" (1.01)

March 22, 2018

Created by Shonda Rhimes

Portrayed by Ellen Pompeo (adult)

Nicolette Collier (young)

 Claire Geare (age 3)

Aria Leabu (Season 11 flashbacks)

In-universe information

Title Chief of General Surgery

M.D.

F.A.C.S.

Occupation Chief of General Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial

Hospital (seasons 12– present)

Attending general surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial

Hospital (seasons 9–present)

Board Director (season 9–present)

Surgical resident at Seattle Grace Mercy West

Hospital (seasons 4–8)

Surgical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital (seasons

1–3)

Family Ellis Grey (mother, deceased)

Thatcher Grey (father, deceased)

Susan Grey (step-mother, deceased)

Lexie Grey (paternal half-sister, deceased)

Molly Grey-Thompson (paternal half-sister)

Alex Karev (best friend, declared brother)

Cristina Yang (best friend, declared sister)

Maggie Pierce (maternal half-sister)

Laura Thompson (niece)

Amelia Shepherd (sister-in-law, declared sister)

Scout Derek Shepherd Lincoln (nephew)

Derek Shepherd
Spouse
 

(m. 2009)
 Significant other Finn Dandridge

Nathan Riggs

Andrew DeLuca

Children Zola Grey-Shepherd (adopted daughter with

Derek)

Derek Bailey Shepherd (son with Derek)

Ellis Shepherd (daughter with Derek)

Meredith Grey, M.D., F.A.C.S. is a fictional and titular character from the medical

drama television series Grey's Anatomy, which airs on the American Broadcasting
Company (ABC) in the United States. The character was created by series
producer Shonda Rhimes, and is portrayed by actress Ellen Pompeo. Meredith is the
series's protagonist and title character, and was introduced as a surgical intern at the
fictional Seattle Grace Hospital (later Seattle Grace-Mercy West Hospital, and
afterwards Grey+Sloan Memorial), eventually obtaining the position of a surgical
resident, and later the position of an attending, and in 2015, attaining the Chief of
General Surgery position. As the daughter of world-renowned surgeon Ellis Grey,
Meredith struggles with the everyday life of being in a competitive profession,
maintaining the relationship with her one-night stand and eventual McHusband, Derek
Shepherd, her motherhood, and her friendships with her colleagues.
Meredith is the narrator of the show and serves as the focal point for most episodes.
Pompeo's connection with Patrick Dempsey (Derek Shepherd) is acclaimed as a high
point of the series. Rhimes has characterized Meredith as not believing in good or bad,
but instead doing what she thinks is right. Grey has been positively received by
television critics, with Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times referring to her as
"the heroine of Grey's Anatomy".
Pompeo's performance has been well received throughout the show and the character
has gained widespread popularity worldwide. Pompeo has been nominated for multiple
awards for her portrayal of the character in the long running ABC medical
drama including Satellite Award for Best Actress and multiple nominations at
the People's Choice Awards for Best Actress winning at 39th People's Choice Awards in
2013 and again in 2015 at 41st People's Choice Awards, Pompeo has also received
a Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama Series nomination at the 64th Golden
Globe Awards.

Contents

 1Storylines and characteristics

 2Development
o 2.1Casting and creation
 o 2.2Characterization
 3Reception
o 3.1Reviews
o 3.2Awards
 4References
 5External links

Storylines and characteristics[edit]

Meredith Grey is the daughter of world-renowned surgeon Ellis Grey, and grew up in
her shadow. Ellis was a deeply flawed, emotionally and verbally abusive, neglectful
mother. Meredith is described as a "dark and twisty," damaged person who sees the
world in varying shades of gray. Because of this, she is an emotionally complex person.
She is capable of empathizing with others when they're at their lowest points, and is a
sensitive observer of the people around her. Meredith is a graduate of Dartmouth
College. While in college, conflicts with her mother lead Meredith to question her
decision to attend medical school. That indecision leads her to make plans to sleep and
party her way through Europe once she graduates. However, after a month abroad,
Meredith is called back to care for her mother, who has developed early-onset
Alzheimer's disease. This news drives Meredith's decision to obtain her M.D.
The night before Meredith's internship begins, she has a one-night stand with Derek
Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), a stranger she meets at Joe's Bar. She discovers the next
day that he is a recently hired attending; the new head of neurosurgery at her new
workplace, Seattle Grace Hospital. Meredith is assigned to work under resident Miranda
Bailey (Chandra Wilson), and befriends her fellow interns, Cristina Yang (Sandra
Oh), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and George
O'Malley (T.R. Knight) .
She is particularly close with Cristina Yang, who becomes her best friend and "person".
Though she initially thinks poorly of him, Alex Karev also evolves into Meredith's
"person" and the two assume a sibling-esque familial relationship. Meredith has a
conflicted relationship with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), the Chief of Surgery at
Seattle Grace. Richard was very close to Ellis and even had an affair when Meredith
was a child. Due to his relationship with Meredith's mother, he tends to save, mentor
and make exceptions for her. Meredith has a habit of "collecting strays", and allows her
friends and coworkers to live in the house her mother left her. Those friends become
her pseudo-family. Meredith is endlessly loyal to those she deems her family, and will
bend the traditional rules of morality to keep them safe.
Having grown up in a hospital, Meredith shows immense natural talent. She possesses
a steadfast, calm ease during medical procedures and emergencies, and is a natural
observer of people. She exhibits a knack for catching subtle hints and accurately
determining difficult-to-catch diagnoses. Her placid, non-judgmental bedside manner
often causes people to open up and trust her. Her surgical skills are solidly impressive
and she shows a talent and patience for medical research trials and dealing with
psychologically damaged patients.
Meredith resists Derek's advances throughout her internship, but is eventually charmed
into starting a relationship with him despite misgivings about an intern dating an
attending. She is, therefore, shocked by the arrival of Addison Montgomery (Kate
Walsh), Derek's wife, unaware that he was married. Derek struggles to choose between
the two, but ultimately returns to Addison, despite Meredith begging to be chosen
instead.
Meredith is devastated and turns to multiple, self-destructive means of coping. Initially
she falls on old habits of self-medicating with tequila and sex, and adopts a dog, named
Doc. She also tries to resolve some issues by searching for her long-absent father,
Thatcher.[1] She learns that her father, who left when she was five and she has not seen
since, remarried and had two more daughters. The two do not become close, but Grey
becomes fond of her stepmother.
Meredith spirals further when Ellis is admitted to the hospital, revealing Ellis' diagnosis
of early-onset Alzheimer's and her verbally abusive tendencies. Meredith self-
destructive behavior reaches its most dangerous when she saves a patient with a bomb
in their chest by impulsively inserting her hand to hold it until the bomb squad can
remove it. Meredith has a series of one-night stands, including one with George, who
has long been in love with her. When she cries in the middle of their encounter, their
friendship temporarily ends. Meredith swears off her behavior, agrees to be friends only
with Shepherd and embarks on a relationship with veterinarian Finn Dandridge (Chris
O'Donnell).
Derek regrets his decision to return to his wife, and Meredith must decide whether to
continue a relationship with Finn, or allow Derek a second chance.
When Ellis experiences a rare, completely lucid day, and expresses her immense
disappointment at how ordinary Meredith has turned out to be, she becomes depressed
and possibly suicidal. During a ferryboat accident, Meredith is knocked into the water
and chooses to give up and drown, rather than fight and swim. She flatlines at the
hospital, and awakens in an "afterlife", where she interacts with deceased former
acquaintances. Ellis dies in the interim, and Meredith meets with her mother, who tells
her that she is anything but ordinary. She undergoes another round of resuscitation at
the insistence of Cristina. Derek distances himself from Meredith as the result of her
self-recklessness, prompting her to seek therapy to address her problems. Meredith
sees a therapist, Dr. Wyatt (Amy Madigan), to seek happiness and begins to
successfully tackle her issues. Meredith found her mother's diaries, dredging up old
memories and secrets for her to work through. Meanwhile, Meredith nearly fails her
intern exam after a drunken Thatcher publicly blames Meredith for the death of his wife,
Susan, a distraught Grey sits through her entire test without writing a single answer. Dr.
Webber gives her a second chance to do the exam, saving her from destroying her
career.
After Meredith is promoted to a resident, her younger half-sister Lexie Grey (Chyler
Leigh) begins working at Seattle Grace as an intern. Meredith initially rejects Lexie's
attempts to form a relationship, but slowly softens towards her. The sisters are very
different people with different childhoods. Lexie had a more idealistic family life and
often has difficulty understanding her much darker sister, who does not have the same
positive associations with family as Lexie.
She later initiates a neurosurgical clinical trial, enlisting Derek as a consulting
neurosurgeon. The trial fails repeatedly, but the final patient they treat survives, which
leads them to reuniting and moving in together. Their relationship is healthier than
before, but still experiences snags as the two attempt to understand each other and
navigate what they now look on as a permanent, long-term relationship. Meredith relies
heavily on Cristina for emotional support and guidance. Eventually, Derek and Meredith
decide to marry, but on their wedding day, the pair give their "perfect" wedding
ceremony to Izzie and Alex, to marry each other during the planned ceremony instead.

The development of Grey and Shepherd's relationship, during season three, was disliked among television
critics.

Meredith and Derek marry by writing their wedding vows on a post-it note. Meredith
spends the majority of a season out of commission after donating part of her liver to
Thatcher.
Meredith experiences another immense trauma after the hospital is put under a
lockdown from an active mass-shooter seeking revenge against Derek. Meredith offers
her own life in exchange for his and miscarries her baby during the crisis. She goes
through this traumatic experience with Cristina, who operates on Derek while
threatened at gunpoint. Meredith hides her loss and the trauma psychiatrist refuses to
clear neither Cristina nor Meredith for their return to surgery. Meredith is able to work
through her issues and become cleared, but Cristina remains deeply traumatized.
Meredith covers for and supports her friend through her dark time, but is ultimately
unable to fully help her return to surgery.
Meredith decides to actively try to become pregnant, but learns that she has a "hostile
uterus", which leads her to consider her other possible genetic flaws. Derek, who is
constantly worried about the possibility that she will develop Alzheimer's, initiates a
clinical trial hoping to cure the disease. Meredith opts to work on the trial and appears to
be leaning towards a neuro specialty.
When Webber's wife, Adele, is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she receives a spot on the
trial. Meredith tampers with the drugs so that Adele does not receive the placebo. She
and Derek decide to adopt Zola, an orphaned baby from Malawi, and make their
marriage legal. When the truth about the tampering comes out, however, a furious
Derek tells her he cannot raise a child with her because of her moral ambiguity.
Meredith is fired and tries to conceal both this and her marital separation from
the adoption counselor in order to keep Zola. Although Dr. Webber steps down as chief
of surgery and takes the blame for the trial tampering to protect Meredith, Zola is taken
away. She and Derek reconcile. Meredith chooses a general surgery specialty over
neuro, and they successfully fight to get Zola back.
As her last year of residency is coming to a close, the residents travel around the
country, searching for the best jobs in their specialties. In order to finish their residency,
the residents must take the medical boards. Meredith takes the exam while sick with the
flu. She decides to take a job offer at The Brigham and Women's Hospital as the next
step in her career. During a medical flight to undertake a prestigious surgery involving
conjoined twins, Meredith, Derek, Cristina, and Lexie, among others, are involved in
an aviation accident. The plane crash kills Lexie, and the survivors are trapped in the
wooded wilderness for days waiting for help. Following their rescue, Meredith becomes
an attending general surgeon at Seattle Grace, now Seattle Grace-Mercy West. While
Cristina flees Seattle for her fellowship, Meredith, afraid of flying and change, declines
her job offer, and clings to what remains in Seattle. Cristina and Meredith begin calling
the hospital “Seattle Grace Mercy Death” in light of the immense amount of trauma,
death, and pain they have experienced there.
Meredith's newfound attitude and sarcasm leads to her being dubbed "Medusa" by the
hospital's new batch of interns. In the aftermath of the plane accident, the hospital is
sued and eventually found guilty of negligence. Each victim including Derek,
Cristina, Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) and herself must receive $15 million of
compensation, which leads the hospital to a near bankruptcy as the insurance company
refuses to pay due to a loophole. The doctors along with Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez)
buy the hospital with the help of the Harper Avery Foundation to prevent it from closing
and become new members of the directing board. In memory of Mark Sloan and Lexie
Grey, Jackson Avery and the board rename the hospital “Grey Sloan Memorial
Hospital.”
Meredith asks Dr. Bailey to perform gene mapping on her to finally know whether she
has Alzheimer's genes like her mother. She tests positive for more than one of the
genetic markers for the disease.
Meredith moves to the completed dream home and sells her house to Alex, who
purchases it as the only true home he's ever known. He continues Meredith's tradition of
keeping the house open to any "strays" needing a home. Meredith discovers she is
pregnant and gives birth to a son. The baby has face presentation and is consequently
delivered via emergency C-section. While stitching Meredith up, the obstetrician who
operated on her is called away to another patient and intern Shane Ross completes the
stitching. When blood begins to appear from everywhere, Meredith diagnoses herself in
as being in DIC. Dr. Bailey performs a spleen removal, which saves her life. In return,
Derek and Meredith name their son Bailey.
As a spouse, surgeon, and mother, Meredith has cited a number times that she did not
want to be like either of her parents: her father had followed her mother around
pathetically before leaving to be happy, while her mother valued her career over her
family. Meredith is frequently conflicted trying to balance between the two, and fears her
family are hindering her medical aspirations, as much as she fears becoming like her
mother whenever she's tempted to choose surgery over family. Meredith and Cristina
have a huge rift when Cristina confirms Meredith's fears by stating that Meredith's skills
have fallen behind Cristina's due to her familial obligations taking her away from OR
time.
Meredith and Derek come to an agreement that he, already established in his career
and reputation, would take a step back to take care of the children and allow her to
shine. Meredith attempts to regain some ground by starting a promising research trial 3-
D printing portal veins. The conflict between Cristina and Meredith widens when Cristina
commandeers Meredith's resources for her own trial, ultimately garnering a Harper
Avery nomination for Cristina. Cristina and Meredith repair their relationship when
Meredith confesses that Cristina was correct, her skills have surpassed Meredith's.
Cristina moves to Switzerland take up a job offer from Preston Burke (Isaiah
Washington), her former attending, mentor and fiancé, who was looking for a
replacement at a research hospital he was running, thus leaving Alex in charge of being
Meredith's "person" in her place, an honor he gladly accepts.
As Meredith adjusts to life without Cristina, she finds out she has a maternal half-sister
named Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) who is now working in Grey Sloan Memorial as
the newly Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Meredith is in denial and rejects Maggie,
thinking she would have remembered if her mother was pregnant. Meredith tries to
piece together her relationship with her mother and half-sister by going through old
videos of her mother. She eventually recovers her repressed memories of the
pregnancy when she views her mother's diary. With the support of Richard Webber
(Maggie’s biological father), Meredith has a change of heart, choosing to accept Maggie
and begin building a relationship.
Meanwhile, Meredith and Derek's marriage becomes strained as Derek accepts an offer
from the U.S. President to participate in the Brain Mapping Initiative. He receives an
offer to head the project itself in Washington D.C., meaning that he would have to be
based there permanently. Meredith puts her foot down as she does not want to uproot
their young family to move across the country for his career at the sacrifice of her own.
They begin a series of on-and-off arguments and "cold wars" over their careers.
Meredith ultimately encourages Derek to go to Washington, and Derek promptly leaves.
Meredith then proceeds lean on her friends for support as she begins living life as a
single parent while simultaneously maintaining a streak of successful surgeries with no
patient-losses. During a phone call with Derek, Meredith and Derek agree to work things
out after she tells him that she did not want them to become "one of those couples" and
he reciprocates, saying that he missed her. She privately admits to Alex that she has
realized that she could live independently of Derek, but chooses not to.
Just as Meredith and Derek begin to rekindle their relationship, Derek is suddenly killed
in a car accident while en route to the airport to catch a flight for one final meeting in
DC. He was taken to an understaffed hospital, which reluctantly took him in despite not
being a trauma center. The doctors failed to recognize his head injury in time. Derek is
declared brain dead, and Meredith must go to the medical center to consent to remove
him from life support. She tells Penny, the intern who was assigned to Derek, that every
doctor has "that one" patient who dies on their watch and haunts them forever and "that
one will make you work harder, and they make you better."
After Derek's death, Meredith returns to Grey Sloan Memorial to inform the others of his
passing. Following the funeral service, Meredith impulsively packs up her belongings
and leaves with the children to an undisclosed location. Months pass by while her
friends and family are unaware of her whereabouts. Eventually, parallels show
similarities in Meredith's and Ellis' lives: Both have lost the love of their life, both run
away from Seattle following their loss, and both eventually give birth to a daughter.
Meredith names her newborn daughter Ellis after her mother. Having listed Alex as her
emergency contact, he meets her at the hospital after delivering Baby Ellis. With the
support of Alex, Meredith returns to Seattle with the children and is later appointed Chief
of General Surgery by Bailey. She sells the "dream house" and moves back to her
mother's house, having purchased it back from Alex, and now lives there with Maggie
and Amelia Shepherd, her sister-in-law. The three are pushed to learn how to more
effectively communicate, support one another, and functionally live as sisters.
Having settled back into life in Seattle, Meredith hosts a dinner party and at the party
Callie brings her knew girlfriend, who is revealed to be Penny, the intern who worked on
Derek at the hospital the night he died. Later at the event Meredith finds out Penny will
be joining her at Grey Sloan Memorial. Meredith is forced to work with Penny, and over
time, decides to effectively train her to be a better surgeon. Meredith eventually forgives
Penny, who becomes her favorite resident. Alex and Meredith continue their close,
sibling-like relationship of being each other's "person", despite Jo's displeasure and
inability to understand their closeness. He supports her when she is violently attacked
by a disoriented patient, and she supports him through his legal difficulties. Alex initiates
a weekly family waffle breakfast on Sundays where he makes waffles for everyone in
the house.
Meredith recovers enough to start seeing Nathan Riggs (Martin Henderson), Owen
Hunt's former best friend, by season 13, although their relationship is complicated by
the fact that Maggie confesses to Meredith that she has feelings for Riggs. Additionally,
Meredith is not ready to declare their relationship formally or publicly for several
episodes. Eventually she accepts her relationship with Riggs, but it's complicated by the
unexpected return of Owen's sister, Megan Hunt, Riggs' fiancée. Meredith finds herself
in another love triangle when Megan rejects Riggs because he is still in love with
Meredith, but Meredith pushes them to be together. After her relationship with Riggs
ends, Meredith is nominated for a Harper Avery Award for her groundbreaking
abdominal transplant surgery on Megan. In the 300th episode, after failing to attend the
awards ceremony to stay for a medical trauma, post-surgery, Meredith learns with all
her closest friends in the OR and gallery that she has won the Harper Avery Award.
After her win, Meredith throws herself into her work and is chosen to continue her
project by the hospital's research contest. However, when she has difficulty getting
access to a patented polymer from Europe, she is dragged back into her mother's past,
as it is Ellis' former best friend, Marie, who is unwilling to help Meredith out. Eventually,
Meredith discovers the full truth about Marie and Ellis' falling out and is able to repair
some of the damage.
During Jo and Alex's wedding, Meredith is kissed by a drunken Andrew
DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti), and the two brush it off. However, while Meredith starts
dating again with the help of her matchmaker patient, CeCe, she is pursued by Andrew,
who has realized his feelings for her. Meredith also gets interest from Link (Chris
Carmack), a new orthopedic surgeon, and briefly finds herself in a love triangle. During
her romantic dilemma, her estranged father, Thatcher, passes away, though they are
able to make peace before his death. Eventually, Meredith chooses Andrew, and the
two begin a relationship. Meredith breaks the hospital record for the longest single
surgery and then begins research on an ingestible diagnostic device. While treating
Gabby Rivera, a young girl with cancer whose family has been split up at the border,
Meredith commits insurance fraud to help Gabby's father pay for the surgery. When the
hospital starts investigating the case, Andrew takes the fall so that Meredith won't be
sent to prison and separated from her kids. Meredith visits Andrew in jail, telling him that
she loves him and will get him out.
In season 16, Meredith turns herself in and is sentenced to community service, while
her medical license, though not revoked, is put in jeopardy. She misses a court date
and neglects to perform some of the hours, leading to a temporary stay in jail. After a
hearing is conducted, Meredith is able to keep her license and is rehired at Grey-Sloan.
On her first day back, she meets Cormac Hayes (Richard Flood), the new Chief of
Pediatrics, who she later learns has been sent to her by Cristina. Hayes and Meredith
grow closer and bond over their shared loss of a spouse. Andrew begins showing signs
of mania, possibly brought on by bipolar disorder, and breaks up with Meredith when
she expresses concern.
In Season 17, Meredith is stressed while coping with the COVID pandemic. Meredith
ultimately contracts COVID-19, and we are left to watch her friends and family fight for
her life while Meredith is unconscious.

Development[edit]
Casting and creation[edit]
Pompeo discovered Grey's Anatomy after an extended period of doing nothing in the
acting profession. Her agent suggested she audition amongst other projects. [2] While
casting actresses for the part of Meredith Grey, series' creator Shonda Rhimes said: "I
kept saying we need a girl like that girl from Moonlight Mile, and after a while, they were
like, 'We think we can get that girl from Moonlight Mile.' I spent time with her and got to
know her, and then we started casting for the men." She reported that Grey was not an
easy role to cast because of the strong verbal possibilities. [3] Rhimes was informed that
the actress in question was Pompeo, who had a deal in place with ABC, having
previously tested for a pilot on the network. [4] It has been speculated that Pompeo was
the first character to be cast, but when asked, she said she did not know of this. [5] When
asked of how she created Pompeo's character, Rhimes said:
[I was] in my pajamas at home, which is where I spent a lot of time writing. I kept asking
myself, 'What kind of woman should the heroine be?' I thought she should be someone
who had made some big mistakes. As it turns out, Meredith also has another problem:
She is trying to live up to her mother's renowned career in surgery. Meredith is the
daughter of a mother who basically never spent any time with her—the daughter of a
mother who now has Alzheimer's and doesn't even remember her. [6]
Pompeo was cast as the program's titular character, described by Mary McNamara of
the Los Angeles Times as "a prickly, independent sort whose ambition, and
ambivalence, is fueled by the fact that her mother was a gifted surgeon and now suffers
from Alzheimer's."[7] Grey also serves as the show's narrator, and as such was likened in
early reviews to Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), the narrator and protagonist
of Sex and the City.[8][9] After her initial contract with Grey's Anatomy expired, Pompeo
negotiated a new one, in which she would be paid US$200,000 per episode, making her
and Dempsey the highest-paid cast members on the show. [10] In
2012, Forbes recognized Pompeo as the eighth highest-paid actress on television, with
a salary of US$275,000 per episode for her role on Grey's Anatomy.[11]
Pompeo's second contract with Grey's Anatomy expired after the eighth season, and
speculation arose that she would be leaving subsequently. [12] In September 2011,
Pompeo reported that she is open to the idea of extending her contract if invited. She
told TV Guide: "I would never turn up my nose at [Grey's Anatomy]. As long as the
stories are honest and truthful, and Patrick [Dempsey] and I feel there is material for us
to be passionate about, it still beats a 9-to-5 job any day. If I hear from the fans that they
want us to keep going, then I would continue because we owe them everything." E!
Online reported in May 2012, that Pompeo, as well as all original cast members, have
signed on for two more years.[13] With the Huffington Post's announcement of season
nine having officially been renewed, the contract is set into place for Pompeo to return. [14]
Pompeo's contract expired again at the end of the twelfth season. She signed a new
contract to keep her in the starring role on the series for the thirteenth season.
[15]
 According to a report in Deadline Hollywood, Pompeo was earning $300,000 per
episode under the new deal.[16]
On January 17, 2018, it was announced by ABC that Ellen Pompeo's contract had been
renewed through season 16. Not only does the contract renewal secure Pompeo's
return as Meredith Grey, but it also makes her a producer of Grey's Anatomy and a co-
executive producer of the spin-off series. The deal will make Pompeo the highest-paid
actress currently on a dramatic TV series, with her making $575,000 per episode and
over $20 million yearly.[17] On May 10, 2019, Pompeo extended her contract through the
seventeenth season after ABC renewed the show for seasons 16 and 17. [18]
Characterization[edit]
Whatever I come up with, [Pompeo] is always game to play. She's been so good at what she's done that I've just let
the character do what I've wanted the character to do, which has been wonderful. She's managed to sell every single
thing because she's truly believed it. The incredible thing is that you can have no fear to write what you think because
she is always able to deliver.
—Executive producer Betsy Beers on developing Pompeo's character[19]

Grey is the protagonist and focal point of the series. She has been called "intelligent,
compassionate, hard-working, oftentimes outspoken, easily distracted, and indecisive"
by Grey's Anatomy executives.[20] Pompeo says she is unaware if her character knows
how to have fun, adding: "All of my scenes with [Dempsey] are the same—we're either
breaking up or having sex."[21] Her personality has evolved over the past few seasons
from depressed, to happy and "fixed". Pompeo said to Good Morning America, "I am so
incredibly lucky to have Patrick [Dempsey], to have the chemistry that we do, we have
an amazing relationship, and it's like any other relationship, you have your ups and
downs. But we work it out, and we've found a way to do this for this long and still get
along, and make it work and believe in what we're doing." Pompeo told Entertainment
Weekly: "It's awkward with Patrick [Dempsey] because he's like my brother. As soon as
the camera is off, I'm like, 'Is your hand on my butt?' But there are millions of girls who
have been waiting for this, so I feel an obligation to the fans." [22] Rhimes used the dog
"Doc", which Meredith and Derek shared, as a metaphor for their relationship during
the second season.[23] She characterizes Grey as doing what she thinks is right:
Meredith is the girl who put her hand on a bomb in a body cavity. Meredith is the girl
who tried to help a serial killer kill himself, so that he could donate his organs. Meredith
—and this is obvious—has a compass that has always led her to shades of grey. She
does not believe in black-and-white, she does not believe in good or bad, she does
what she thinks is right.[24]

McKee deemed Grey and O'Malley's sexual encounter irreversible.

The character had a one-night stand with George O'Malley, in the second season.
Series writer Stacy McKee, said of the sexual encounter: "There's no turning back.
There's nothing George and Meredith can do. The damage is done – things will never
be the same. They've just changed something important in their lives FOREVER
and...they are freaking out." [25] Grey's character development has also been known as an
influence on the creation of her half-sister, Lexie Grey. Particularly, it has been made
clear that they both share the same motives. McKee offered her thoughts: "Meredith
and Lexie both want to succeed. They want to be strong. They want to feel normal.
They want, so much, to be whole. But it's a struggle – a genuine struggle for them.
Being hardcore doesn't come naturally. Sometimes, they have to fake it." [26] Grey's
personality has been compared with that of Alex Karev's. Rhimes offered