Meredith Grey: Biography

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Meredith Grey.Image via Wikimedia Commons

Who Is Meredith Grey?

Meredith Grey MD, FACS, (born 1978) is the fictional 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 made her first appearance in the pilot episode, "A Hard Day's Night", broadcast on March 27, 2005. She also appears in the spin-off series Station 19 as a recurring character.

Meredith is the series' protagonist and was introduced as a surgical intern at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital (later Seattle Grace-Mercy West Hospital, and afterward Grey Sloan Memorial). She eventually obtains the position of a surgical resident, and later, the position of an attending surgeon. In 2016, she attains the Chief of General Surgery position. As the daughter of world-renowned surgeon Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), Meredith struggles with balancing the challenges of being in a competitive profession, maintaining her relationship with her one-night stand and eventual husband, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), her role as a mother, and her friendships with her colleagues. Her relationships with colleagues Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and George O'Malley (T. R. Knight) often referred to as MAGIC, form a central part of the show's early dynamics.

Meredith serves as the narrator of the show and is the focal point of most episodes, though other characters' perspectives are also explored. Pompeo's on-screen chemistry with Dempsey has been celebrated as a high point of the series. Rhimes has described Meredith as someone who does not believe in absolute good or bad, but rather does what she feels is right. Meredith Grey has been positively received by critics, with Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times calling her "the heroine of Grey's Anatomy".

Pompeo's performance as Meredith has been well received throughout the series, leading to worldwide popularity for the character. Pompeo has been nominated for multiple awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama (both in 2007). She earned several nominations for the People's Choice Awards for Best Actress, winning in 2013 and 2015. She even became the highest paid actress on television in 2018.

Early Life: Where Is Meredith Grey From?

Fictional biography

Meredith Grey is the daughter of world-renowned attending general surgeon, Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), and grew up in her shadow. Ellis was a deeply flawed and neglectful mother. She moved a five-year-old Meredith from Seattle to Boston where she lost all contact with her father.

Meredith is a graduate of Dartmouth College. While in college, she led a hedonistic lifestyle. Conflicts with her mother and her lack of support made Meredith question her decision to attend medical school. That indecision led her to leave for Europe once she graduated. However, after a month abroad, Meredith was called back to care for her mother, who had developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This news drove 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). She discovers the next day that he is the head of neurosurgery at her new workplace, Seattle Grace Hospital.

Meredith Grey's Career and Major Works

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, who becomes her best friend and "person". Though she initially thinks poorly of him, Alex 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 had an affair with Ellis when Meredith was a child. He often assumes a fatherly role towards her which she initially resents.

Meredith resists Derek's advances at the beginning of 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. When Derek decides to return to Addison, Meredith is devastated and falls back on old habits.

She tries to resolve some issues by searching for her long-absent father, Thatcher Grey (Jeff Perry). The two do not become close, but she becomes fond of her stepmother. Meredith spirals further when Ellis is admitted to the hospital, revealing her mother's diagnosis to her colleagues, as well as her verbally abusive tendencies. Meredith's self-destructive behavior peaks when she saves a patient with a bomb inside them by impulsively inserting her hand into their chest to keep the bomb still until it can be removed.

Meredith Grey's Personal Life and Relationships

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 with Derek, and embarks on a relationship with veterinarian Finn Dandridge (Chris O'Donnell). Derek regrets his decision to return to his wife, and Meredith eventually realizes that Derek is the one, and the two of them get back together.

When Ellis experiences a rare, completely lucid day and expresses her immense disappointment at how ordinary Meredith has turned out to be, Meredith becomes depressed. During a ferryboat accident, Meredith is knocked into the water and drowns. She awakens in an "afterlife", where she interacts with deceased former acquaintances. In this limbo state, she confesses there was a moment where she thought what the point was in going on, and she momentarily gave up. Ellis dies in the interim, and Meredith meets with her mother, who tells her that she is anything but ordinary, before Meredith is brought back to life in the hospital.

Derek distances himself from Meredith as a result of her recklessness, prompting her to seek therapy to address her problems. She nearly fails her intern exam after a drunken Thatcher publicly blames her for the death of his wife Susan. Webber gives her a second chance to do the exam, saving her from destroying her career.

During her therapy sessions with psychiatrist Dr. Katharine Wyatt (Amy Madigan), she explores several things like her relationship with Derek among other problems. In these sessions, Dr. Wyatt explored the possibility that due to Ellis’ neglectful behaviour towards Meredith, it caused her to assume a form of passive suicidal ideation, which was why she was so reckless with anything regarding her mortality (like her drowning in the bay and when she stuck her hand in a body with an active bomb). Additionally, Meredith also reveals that Ellis attempted suicide by slitting her wrists after being rejected by Richard, but she ended up realising due to the intricacy of the way she cut herself and her surgical intellect of human anatomy, Ellis’ suicide attempt was a cry for Richard’s attention, who didn’t find out about her suicide attempt until Meredith told him.

Where Is Meredith Grey Now? Recent Years

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.

Meredith later initiates a neurosurgical clinical trial, enlisting Derek as a consulting neurosurgeon. The trial fails repeatedly, but the final patient they treat survives, prompting them to reunite and move in together. Eventually, Derek and Meredith decide to marry, but on their wedding day, the pair give away their wedding ceremony to Izzie and Alex. Meredith and Derek instead marry by writing their wedding vows on a post-it note. Meredith then spends a month out of commission after donating part of her liver to Thatcher.

Meredith experiences another immense trauma after the hospital is put under 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, and Meredith tries to support her friend afterwards as best she can.

Meredith decides to actively try to become pregnant, but learns that she has a "hostile uterus". Meredith opts to work on Derek's clinical trial for curing Alzheimer's and she appears to be leaning towards a neuro specialty, but she endangers the trial by tampering with the drugs in an effort to help Webber's wife.

Meredith Grey's Legacy and Impact

She and Derek decide to adopt Zola, an orphaned baby from Malawi, and make their marriage legal. When the truth about Meredith's 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 her behavior leads to Zola being taken away. She and Derek reconcile eventually, Meredith chooses a general surgery specialty over neuro, and they successfully fight to get Zola back.

Meredith takes the medical boards while sick with the flu. She decides to accept a job offer at The Brigham and Women's Hospital as the next step in her career. During a flight to undertake a prestigious surgery, Meredith, Derek, Cristina, and Lexie, among others, are involved in an aviation accident. Lexie dies in the accident, causing heavy grief to fall upon Meredith as the group is left stranded in the forest. Following their rescue, Meredith becomes an attending general surgeon at Seattle Grace, now Seattle Grace Mercy West.

Meredith's strict attitude and sarcasm lead to her being dubbed "Medusa" by the hospital's new batch of interns. Meredith, along with the other victims of the plane crash, receives $15 million in compensation from the hospital for their negligence. To prevent the hospital from going into bankruptcy, Meredith helps buy the hospital and becomes a member of the newly renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital board of directors. She also asks Dr. Bailey to perform gene mapping on her to finally learn whether she has Alzheimer's genes like her mother. She tests positive for more than one of the genetic markers for the disease.

After construction is completed, Meredith moves with Derek into their dream house. She also discovers that she is pregnant with Derek's child once again. Meredith suffers a near miscarriage after falling down the stairs and her baby is delivered via emergency C-section. Her baby is born in a superstorm blackout. In the aftermath, Meredith diagnoses herself as being in disseminated intravascular coagulation and Dr Shane Ross starts an exploratory laparotomy. Dr. Bailey then performs a spleen removal on her, which saves her life. In return, Meredith and Derek name their son Derek Bailey Shepherd, with him going by his middle name.

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. Meredith and Derek come to an agreement that he will take a step back to take care of the children and allow her to develop her career. Meredith attempts to regain some ground by starting a promising research trial 3D-printing portal veins. The conflict between Cristina and Meredith widens when Cristina commandeers Meredith's resources for her own trial. They later repair their relationship before Cristina moves to Switzerland.

As Meredith adjusts to life without Cristina, she finds out she has a maternal half-sister named Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary), who was given away for adoption by her mother and who is now working in Grey Sloan Memorial. Meredith retrieves repressed childhood memories of her mother being pregrant, and eventually chooses to accept Maggie and begin building a relationship.

Meanwhile, Meredith and Derek's marriage becomes strained. She does not want to uproot their young family to move across the country for his career at the sacrifice of her own. Meredith ultimately encourages Derek to go work in Washington, D.C., and he promptly leaves. Meredith proceeds to lean on her friends for support while simultaneously maintaining a streak of successful surgeries with no patient losses. Meredith and Derek agree to work things out over the phone. Meredith 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. He is declared brain dead at an understaffed hospital, and Meredith consents to removing him from life support. Following the funeral service, Meredith impulsively packs up her belongings and leaves with the children for Boston. Months pass by with parallels showing similarities in Meredith's and Ellis' lives; Meredith eventually give birth to a daughter alone like Ellis did. She names her newborn daughter after her mother. With Alex's support, she 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 where she lives with Maggie and Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone), her sister-in-law that she considers as much of a sister as Maggie.

Meredith Grey's career continues to be documented by reputable media; the facts above are drawn from Wikipedia's biography and public records.

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