121 Fun Facts About Greys Anatomy

Meredith's mother dies in Grey's Anatomy's third season while Meredith is being revived after which disaster?

A ferry crash brings Meredith to the pier, where a patient accidentally knocks her into the water and she drowns; her mother dies while doctors fight to revive her, soon after a lucid day on which she called her daughter ordinary.

What nickname do the interns give Derek Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy because of his looks?

McDreamy stuck from the show's second episode and set off a running joke, with the interns going on to Mc-name a rival surgeon and even Meredith's vet.

Which Seattle building, home of the city's ABC station, is used for some of Grey's Anatomy's hospital exteriors?

Fisher Plaza, since renamed KOMO Plaza, houses Seattle's ABC affiliate, KOMO, and its news helipad plays the hospital's: air ambulances land there, right beside the Space Needle.

On Grey's Anatomy, which prestigious surgical prize did Meredith's mother win twice?

The Harper Avery Award went to Meredith's mother twice; when Meredith finally won one herself in season 14, she skipped the ceremony to operate and heard the news in the OR.

Grey's Anatomy premiered in March 2005 as a mid-season replacement for which ABC courtroom drama?

Boston Legal gave up its Sunday 10 p.m. slot to the newcomer, which rated so well that ABC cut the older show's season short and held it back until the autumn.

Where did Cristina Yang begin her fellowship after leaving Seattle at the start of season nine?

The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota was Cristina Yang's fresh start after the plane crash, but she struggled to fit in there and was back in Seattle within a few episodes.

Which of Derek Shepherd's four sisters follows him onto the surgical staff at Grey Sloan Memorial?

Amelia, the youngest of Derek's four sisters, took over his department when he stepped aside; she had first appeared on a spin-off before crossing over to the show.

What did Izzie Stevens cut to move her patient Denny Duquette up the transplant list?

Izzie cut Denny's LVAD wire so his condition would worsen enough to jump the transplant list; she resigned over it, was later reinstated, and Denny died of a stroke hours after the new heart went in.

Which Grey's Anatomy character was one of the five original interns in season one?

George O'Malley started on day one alongside Meredith and the rest of her class, but he failed the exam that ends the intern year and had to repeat it.

Which actor plays Dr. Richard Webber?

James Pickens Jr. has played Richard Webber since the pilot; off screen he competes in team roping, and a Western heritage museum named him among its 2019 honourees.

Which bomb-squad leader is killed when the bomb explodes in Grey's Anatomy's second season?

Dylan Young, the bomb-squad leader played by Kyle Chandler, took the bomb from Meredith's hands and was killed when it exploded in the hallway; Chandler earned an Emmy nomination for the role.

On what do Meredith and Derek write their wedding vows at the end of Grey's Anatomy's fifth season?

A Post-it note was all Meredith had to hand after the couple gave their planned ceremony away to friends; they did not marry officially until two seasons later.

Grey's Anatomy overtook which hospital series to become America's longest-running primetime medical drama?

ER closed in 2009 after 15 seasons and 331 episodes; Grey's Anatomy, launched as a mid-season fill-in, passed that total during its own fifteenth season.

Where does Derek Shepherd propose to Meredith Grey in season five, surrounded by scans from their cases?

In a hospital elevator papered with scans from surgeries they had shared, Derek proposes without kneeling or even asking: he just says he wants to spend his life with her.

What is Dr. Cristina Yang's surgical specialty?

Cardiothoracic surgery is Cristina Yang's field: in season ten she 3D-prints heart conduits for children, a project that earns her a nomination for surgery's top prize.

Grey's Anatomy's plane-crash survivors renamed their hospital in tribute to which two doctors?

Lexie Grey and Mark Sloan both died of their crash injuries; the survivors' lawsuit payout pushed the hospital toward bankruptcy, so they clubbed together to buy it and renamed it in the pair's memory.

How do Meredith Grey and Cristina Yang famously shake off a bad day together?

They dance it out, and the ritual closes Cristina's final episode: she refuses to leave for the airport until the two of them have danced one last time.

Who is Meredith Grey's half-sister on her mother's side, who turns up already working at Grey Sloan Memorial?

Maggie Pierce is the daughter Meredith's mother secretly had with Richard Webber and gave up for adoption; she is hired as a department head late in season ten, before anyone knows who she is.

What does Arizona Robbins lose as a result of the season-eight plane crash on Grey's Anatomy?

Her left leg had to be amputated to save her life once she was back in Seattle; her wife, who had promised not to allow it, made the call, and Arizona blamed her for it.

Why did Jo Wilson, once known as Brooke Stadler, change her name before arriving in Seattle?

To escape her abusive husband she fled and started again as Jo Wilson, a secret she admits only when she has to explain why she cannot legally marry.

Which two words end Meredith's famous plea to Derek that begins 'Pick me, choose me'?

Love me ends the speech Meredith makes while Derek is torn between her and his wife; he hears her out, then goes back to his marriage anyway.

Who is Jackson Avery's mother?

Catherine Fox, a urologist played by Debbie Allen, is Jackson Avery's mother; she raised him alone after his father walked out, and later marries Richard Webber.

Which word completes Cristina Yang's parting advice to Meredith about Derek: 'He is not the ___, you are'?

The sun is Meredith herself, Cristina insists: she should stop letting her husband's plans come before her own career.

Dr. Miranda Bailey's climb from resident to Chief of Surgery was in which specialty?

General surgery kept Miranda Bailey: she weighed a pediatric fellowship in season five, gave it up as her marriage ended, and won the Chief of Surgery job in season 12.

Which condition cost Richard Webber the chief's job in season six?

Richard Webber's alcoholism, which he had beaten years earlier, resurfaced in season six; he stepped down as chief, went to rehab, and got the job back the following season.

Who does Cristina Yang marry in Grey's Anatomy's season-seven premiere?

Owen Hunt marries Cristina Yang in the season-seven premiere, an impulsive wedding soon after the hospital shooting left her with PTSD; they divorce in season nine.

On Grey's Anatomy, what had Cristina just listed Meredith as when she first said, 'You're my person'?

Her emergency contact: a clinic would not confirm Cristina's appointment until she named someone to see her home, so she put Meredith down, and 'my person' became the pair's shorthand for best friend.

Which doctor did Izzie Stevens marry in season five?

Izzie Stevens married Alex Karev late in season five, in the wedding Meredith and Derek had planned for themselves and gave away when Izzie's cancer treatment left her future uncertain.

What is Dr. Derek Shepherd's surgical specialty?

Neurosurgery is Derek Shepherd's field: he made his name on tumours other surgeons called inoperable, and was later recruited to a presidential brain-mapping initiative.

Which Grey's Anatomy surgeon do the interns nickname 'McSteamy'?

Mark Sloan was McSteamy: the interns coined the name the moment he first appeared in season two, as Derek's former best friend who had slept with Addison.

What kind of doctor is Dr. Arizona Robbins?

Arizona Robbins is a pediatric surgeon who arrives in season five to run the department; she was named after the battleship USS Arizona, not the state.

Which actress plays Miranda Bailey?

Chandra Wilson has played Miranda Bailey since the pilot and works behind the camera too: she made her directing debut with the season-six episode 'Give Peace a Chance'.

Who goes on the shooting rampage through the hospital in Grey's Anatomy's season-six finale?

Gary Clark, a widower whose wife had been taken off life support at the hospital, came hunting the surgeons he blamed; he wounded Derek and killed residents Reed Adamson and Charles Percy.

What is Dr. Callie Torres's surgical specialty?

Orthopedic surgery is Callie Torres's field; she arrives in season two as a resident, marries a fellow doctor on impulse in Las Vegas, and divorces him after he cheats.

Where do Grey's Anatomy's doctors go to drink after their shifts, just across the street from the hospital?

Joe's Bar, formally the Emerald City Bar, sits across the street from the hospital; Meredith meets Derek there the night before her first day as an intern.

What job did Izzie Stevens do before becoming a doctor, a past her fellow interns mock in season one?

Lingerie model was Izzie's old job; a fellow intern plastered her photo around the hospital to humiliate her, yet she faced the room down and the two of them ended up friends.

Izzie Stevens was diagnosed with Stage 4 of which cancer in Season 5?

Izzie had stage IV melanoma that had spread to her brain; the tumor explained her hallucinations of her dead fiancé Denny, and Derek operated to remove it.

What is Dr. Owen Hunt's surgical specialty?

Trauma surgery is Owen Hunt's field: he makes his entrance by opening a crash victim's airway with a pen, then closes the gash in his own leg with a staple gun.

Which doctor does Jackson Avery marry in season ten?

April Kepner's wedding to a paramedic in season ten stops when Jackson stands up and declares his feelings; the two run out of the wedding and elope, and later have a daughter, Harriet.

Who is Meredith Grey's mother, a celebrated surgeon whose reputation hangs over her daughter's career?

Ellis Grey was a star general surgeon who had an affair with Richard Webber, then moved five-year-old Meredith from Seattle to Boston, out of reach of her father.

Cristina Yang leaves Seattle in season ten to run a research hospital in which European city?

Zurich is where her former fiance ran a research hospital; he invited her to speak there, then offered her the whole place so that he could move away with his family.

What is Dr. Jackson Avery's surgical specialty?

Plastic surgery won Jackson Avery over in season seven, when the department's chief took him on as a protege; the pair called themselves the Plastics Posse.

Which surgeon, presumed dead for a decade, turns up alive in season 14 of Grey's Anatomy?

Megan Hunt had been missing in a war zone for ten years; she comes home in season 14, needs a groundbreaking abdominal transplant from Meredith, and her return ends Meredith's new romance.

What hits Seattle in Grey's Anatomy's season-nine finale, knocking out the hospital's power?

A superstorm batters Seattle in the season-nine finale 'Perfect Storm'; the hospital's backup generators fail, and Webber is electrocuted in the basement electrical room.

Which Grey's Anatomy surgical resident gives up surgery to become a firefighter on the spin-off Station 19?

Ben Warren had already changed careers once, giving up anesthesiology to retrain as a surgeon, before he walked away again to fight fires on Station 19.

What is the title of Grey's Anatomy's pilot episode, which follows the interns' first 48-hour shift?

'A Hard Day's Night' takes its title from the Beatles song and set the pattern: with rare exceptions, every episode since has been named after a song.

Which huge TV event led straight into Grey's Anatomy's season-two bomb episode, its most-watched ever?

The Super Bowl led straight into 'It's the End of the World' in February 2006, and about 38 million people stayed to watch a paramedic's hand hold live ammunition steady inside a patient's chest.

Which ABC hit was Grey's Anatomy's Sunday-night lead-in in its first season?

Desperate Housewives, ABC's 9 p.m. Sunday smash, led straight into Grey's Anatomy at 10; the pairing gave the new drama a huge launch audience in spring 2005.

Which Grey's Anatomy cast member was promoted from recurring to series regular in season two?

Kate Walsh debuted as Derek's wife Addison in the season-one finale and was made a series regular during season two, before headlining her own spin-off.

Which Snow Patrol song became a US hit after it closed Grey's Anatomy's season-two finale?

'Chasing Cars' played over the closing scenes of the season-two finale 'Losing My Religion' in May 2006, pushing the song into the US top five and making it Snow Patrol's signature hit.

Which crime does Meredith Grey commit in season 15 so that an asylum-seeker's daughter can have surgery?

Insurance fraud got the girl her operation; when it came to light, Meredith's boyfriend took the blame for her and went to jail in her place.

Which original Grey's Anatomy star was released from her contract midway through season six?

Katherine Heigl failed to return to the set in March 2010 and agreed with the producers to go at once, so her final episode had already aired that January.

What does Meredith Grey donate to save her estranged father's life in season six?

Part of her liver went to the father who had vanished from her childhood; his other daughter was not a match, so Meredith reluctantly stepped in.

Why was a team of Seattle surgeons aboard the plane that crashes in Grey's Anatomy's season-eight finale?

To separate conjoined twins at a hospital in Boise, the team flew out together; the plane never arrived, and the survivors were left stranded in the woods to wait for rescue.

Which pop star guest-starred on Grey's Anatomy in 2010 as a teenager wrongly diagnosed with schizophrenia?

Demi Lovato played Hayley, a psychiatric patient whose symptoms were traced to an inner-ear fault that made every sound overwhelming, one that surgery could repair.

Which clinical study did Meredith tamper with in season seven, straining her marriage?

Meredith swapped the envelopes in Derek's Alzheimer's clinical trial so a patient she cared about would receive the drug rather than the placebo; the tampering got her fired and nearly wrecked her marriage.

Which actor played Jackson Avery on Grey's Anatomy?

Jesse Williams was a public-school teacher before turning to acting; in 2022 he went to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination.

What was Derek Shepherd doing shortly before a truck hit him?

Helping victims of a car crash, Derek got everyone out alive; as he pulled away a truck struck his own car, and the hospital that received him was too slow to scan his head.

Which Oscar winner joined Grey's Anatomy in season 11 as a star surgeon hiding a brain tumour?

Geena Davis played Nicole Herman, who races to hand her skills on to a protegee before the tumour kills her; surgery saves her life but leaves her blind.

Which illness leaves Meredith Grey fighting for her life through much of season 17?

COVID-19 nearly kills Meredith; in her fever dreams she walks a beach where people she has lost, Derek among them, come back to talk to her.

In the season-four finale, Meredith Grey maps out the house she wants to share with Derek using what?

Candles laid out on Derek's land trace the kitchen, the living room and a room for children: Meredith's way of telling him she is finally ready to build a life with him.

In Grey's Anatomy's 2011 musical episode, what do the doctors sing?

Hits from the show's soundtrack carry the whole hour: badly hurt on the road, one of the surgeons hallucinates herself and the colleagues fighting to save her bursting into song.

Grey's Anatomy's title is a pun on Gray's Anatomy, which is what?

A classic medical textbook: Henry Gray's anatomy manual has been in print since 1858, and the show swapped a single vowel so that the title would also carry its heroine's surname.

Which Postal Service track opens Volume 1 of the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack?

Such Great Heights opens the first album; the duo behind it lived in different cities and named themselves for their method, posting half-finished songs to each other on burned CDs.

Which band's 'How to Save a Life' became a US top-three hit after Grey's Anatomy featured it?

The Fray's song first played in a season-two episode, then fronted the trailers for the show's third season, and within months it had climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which award did Grey's Anatomy win for Best Television Series - Drama in 2007?

Golden Globe voters named it best drama in January 2007, but the Emmy never followed: nominated for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006 and 2007, it lost to 24 and then The Sopranos.

What is the name of the dog Meredith Grey brings home in season two of Grey's Anatomy?

Doc came home with Meredith and Izzie, but a housemate threatened to move out over him, so he went to live with Derek and his wife, and was later put down with bone cancer.

Ellen Pompeo's 2018 Grey's Anatomy deal made her TV's top-paid drama actress at roughly how much a year?

$20 million a year, built on $575,000 an episode plus a signing bonus and a profit share, came only after her co-star left in 2015: she said the studio had spent years telling her it did not need her because it had him.

What do the interns have to organise at the hospital in Grey's Anatomy's season-two finale?

A prom for the chief's dying niece: he orders the interns to organise it as a punishment, and will not let them off until one of them owns up to a serious breach of the rules.

Which actress plays Meredith Grey's mother on Grey's Anatomy?

Kate Burton's character dies in season three, yet she keeps returning in flashbacks, dreams and visions long afterwards; she is the daughter of the actor Richard Burton.

What happens between Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd on the eve of her first day as an intern?

A one-night stand: she shows a stranger out of her house in the morning, then arrives for her first shift to find that he is one of the surgeons she will be working under.

How does Alex Karev say goodbye to his wife and colleagues in his final Grey's Anatomy episode?

By letter: he is heard only in voice-over, over footage from old episodes, as his wife and his colleagues read that he has left to raise the children he had not known he had.

What does Izzie Stevens do with the $8.7 million Denny Duquette leaves her on Grey's Anatomy?

Funds a free clinic: the cheque sat uncashed at home for weeks, making everyone anxious, until the hospital's planned clinic turned out to have no money and she put nearly all of it in.

Which Emmy did Katherine Heigl win in 2007 for playing Izzie?

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series went to Heigl in 2007, and she got there past two of her own castmates, who were nominated against her in the same category.

Callie Torres's first name on Grey's Anatomy is short for which name from Greek myth?

Calliope is her full first name; within a year of arriving she has married a fellow doctor on impulse in Las Vegas, a match that barely outlasts the season.

Which girlfriend of Callie's turned out to be one of Derek's doctors on the day he died?

Penny Blake, the resident Callie begins dating in season 12, was one of the doctors at Dillard Medical who treated Derek after his crash; Meredith recognises her at a dinner party.

Arizona Robbins is known for wearing what on her feet?

Wheeled sneakers, Heelys in fact, carry Arizona Robbins around the wards from her first episodes; the part was meant to last three episodes, but the show kept her for a decade.

Meredith Grey famously describes herself on Grey's Anatomy as 'dark and' what?

Twisty is her word for her own bleak outlook, the opposite of her husband's easy optimism: she sees the world in shades of grey where he sees right and wrong.

What do Callie Torres and Mark Sloan name the daughter they have together on Grey's Anatomy?

Sofia is delivered months early after her mother is badly hurt on the road, and she starts life with three parents: her mother, her father and the woman her mother marries.

Owen Hunt arrives on Grey's Anatomy fresh from serving as an Army surgeon in which country?

Iraq still had a claim on him: offered a job at the hospital after his dramatic first day, he turned it down because his tour was not over, and joined the staff only later.

Jackson Avery arrives on Grey's Anatomy from which rival hospital when it merges with Seattle Grace?

Mercy West Medical Center was Seattle Grace's crosstown rival until the two merged in season six, and the merger opened with a round of sackings among the staff who were already there.

Jackson Avery works to succeed on his own merit rather than trade on the famous name of which relative?

His grandfather, a renowned surgeon, is one of the most famous names in American medicine, and Jackson will not use it: he refuses the place at a leading Boston hospital that the old man offers to arrange.

Which of these specialties is Addison Montgomery board-certified in on Grey's Anatomy?

Maternal-fetal medicine is one of her two board certifications, with obstetrics and gynaecology; she first comes to Seattle at the chief's request, hoping to win back her estranged husband.

In the spin-off Private Practice, Addison Montgomery leaves Seattle to join a clinic in which city?

Los Angeles is her fresh start once her marriage is over: she joins two old friends at their practice there, and the spin-off built around her runs for six seasons.

Whom did Teddy Altman marry to give him healthcare coverage, only to fall in love?

Teddy married her patient Henry Burton, played by Scott Foley, so her insurance would cover his treatment for Von Hippel-Lindau disease; she fell in love, and he died on Cristina's table in season eight.

Teddy Altman's best friend Allison died in which event?

The 9/11 attacks killed Allison when the second tower fell; unable to stay in New York without her, Teddy gave up her hospital job there and enlisted in the Army.

Which two cardiothoracic surgeons preceded Teddy Altman on Grey's Anatomy?

Preston Burke and Erica Hahn had been rivals since medical school, where he graduated first and she just behind him; when he left Seattle, she finally got his job.

Which infection sweeps through the hospital's staff in Grey's Anatomy's first season?

Syphilis passes from one intern to a nurse and on to her next boyfriend, and when more cases surface the chief gathers the whole floor for a stern lecture and a safe-sex demonstration.

Which NBC legal drama gave Ellen Pompeo her screen debut?

Law & Order gave her a one-episode guest part in 1996; two decades later the bit-part player had become the highest-paid actress on a primetime drama.

Which title did People magazine give Grey's Anatomy's Patrick Dempsey in 2023, at the age of 57?

Sexiest Man Alive reached him late: he joked that he had always been the bridesmaid for the title, and took it eight years after leaving the show that made him a heartthrob.

Which 1987 film was among Patrick Dempsey's early starring roles?

Can't Buy Me Love cast him as a high-school outcast who pays a cheerleader $1,000 to pose as his girlfriend for a month, the first of the romantic comedies that became his stock-in-trade.

Sandra Oh played an MI5 officer hunting an assassin in which spy thriller?

Killing Eve cast her as the intelligence officer Eve Polastri, yet when the script arrived she did not realise the lead was meant for her, after years of being typecast as the best friend.

The Genie Award that Sandra Oh won for the 1994 film Double Happiness was which country's national film award?

Canada gave the Ontario-born actress its national film award for playing an aspiring actress struggling to break free of what her Chinese-Canadian family expects of her.

T. R. Knight grew up on stage at Minneapolis's Guthrie Theater, playing which Dickens child for three seasons?

Tiny Tim was his part in the Guthrie's annual A Christmas Carol, and he came back as an adult to play Mozart there in Amadeus, a few years before Grey's Anatomy made him a television star.

In which 1993 film did Chandra Wilson make her first film appearance?

Chandra Wilson made her film debut with a small part in Philadelphia (1993), the Tom Hanks AIDS drama, more than a decade before she became Miranda Bailey.

Before Grey's Anatomy, Justin Chambers was a model, spotted by a scout while visiting which city?

Paris gave him his start: spotted there by a scout, he went on to model for Calvin Klein around the world before a daytime soap gave him his first acting role.

Sara Ramirez won a Tony for playing which role in the 2005 musical Spamalot?

The Lady of the Lake won Ramirez a Tony in 2005 and more besides: ABC executives who saw the show offered a part in any series on the network, and Ramirez picked Grey's Anatomy.

Which Call of Duty character does Kevin McKidd voice?

John 'Soap' MacTavish, the captain of Task Force 141, has McKidd's voice in Modern Warfare 2 and its sequel; on Grey's Anatomy the actor also went behind the camera, directing from season seven on.

Sarah Drew was still at high school when she began voicing Stacy Rowe in which MTV animated series?

Daria grew out of Beavis and Butt-Head, where its deadpan heroine began as a side character; Drew voiced the anxious Fashion Club secretary in the series and in both of its TV films.

Which HBO series featured Eric Dane as Cal Jacobs?

Euphoria gave him his darkest role, a married father hiding a dangerous double life, a long way from the charming surgeon he had played on Grey's Anatomy.

In which superhero film series did Eric Dane play Multiple Man in 2006, the year he joined Grey's Anatomy?

X-Men: The Last Stand cast him as a mutant who can copy himself; the same year, a one-episode guest spot on Grey's Anatomy went down so well that he was made a regular.

Chyler Leigh played Alex Danvers in which DC Comics series?

Supergirl kept her busy for six seasons as the heroine's adoptive sister, yet in 2021 she slipped back to Grey's Anatomy for a single episode, nine years after her character had died.

Which director is Jessica Capshaw's stepfather?

Steven Spielberg married Jessica Capshaw's mother, actress Kate Capshaw, in 1991, after directing her in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Kim Raver began her career at age 6 on which children's show?

Sesame Street had her from the age of six for three years; decades later she left Grey's Anatomy after three seasons, then came back five years on and rejoined the regular cast.

Which video-game heroine did Camilla Luddington voice across a rebooted trilogy from 2013?

Lara Croft was more than a voice job: taking over the part from Keeley Hawes, Luddington also acted it out in a motion-capture suit for all three games.

Where was Jo Wilson living at 16, before she made it to medical school on Grey's Anatomy?

In her car, after a childhood spent being passed between foster homes; a teacher let her into school early so that she could shower and do her laundry there.

Which series completed Shonda Rhimes's trio of dramas to pass 100 episodes?

Scandal reached its 100th episode in April 2017, by which time ABC had handed its creator's dramas the whole of Thursday night and branded the line-up TGIT.

Which Netflix period series does Shonda Rhimes executive produce?

Bridgerton was the first scripted series to come out of the Netflix deal for which she left ABC, her home since Grey's Anatomy began; it is adapted from Julia Quinn's Regency romances.

How is George O'Malley fatally injured at the end of Grey's Anatomy's fifth season?

He is hit by a bus as he pushes a stranger out of its path, and arrives so badly hurt that nobody knows him until he traces his old nickname on a friend's palm.

Which pop singer played Mary, a patient trapped with her surgeon in Grey's Anatomy's season-six shooting finale?

Mandy Moore's character lives through the shooting at her surgeon's side, and comes back six months later for the operation that the gunman had interrupted.

Which disaster leaves two strangers impaled on the same pole in a famous season-two episode of Grey's Anatomy?

A train crash sends the pair to the hospital, where freeing one means moving the other and probably losing them; the episode earned its writer an Emmy nomination.

In which musical drama did Debbie Allen play dance teacher Lydia Grant?

Fame turned a bit part into a career: Lydia Grant has only a small role in the 1980 film, but the series put the dance teacher at its centre, and Allen choreographed it as well.

After what event does Preston Burke walk out of Grey's Anatomy in season three?

His failed wedding to Cristina ends it: he calls the ceremony off at the last minute, saying he has been trying to turn her into someone she is not, and has cleared out of their flat by the time she gets home.

With which director did Isaiah Washington collaborate on Crooklyn and Clockers?

Spike Lee cast him four times in three years, from Crooklyn to Get on the Bus; a decade later he read for the romantic lead on Grey's Anatomy and was cast as a different surgeon instead.

Denny Duquette actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is best known for which Walking Dead villain?

Negan arrived in 2016, a decade after Grey's Anatomy had refused to let Morgan go: his patient died in 2006, yet kept reappearing, as a vision, for another three years.

Loretta Devine won a Guest Actress Emmy for playing which recurring character?

Adele Webber, the chief's wife, won Loretta Devine the 2011 guest-actress Emmy; early in the show she makes her husband choose between her and the hospital, and walks out when he dithers.

In which hometown city did Shonda Rhimes first consider setting Grey's Anatomy?

Chicago was her first thought, but television already had a famous hospital drama set there, so she moved her doctors to Seattle to keep the two shows apart.

Which actor turned down the role of Derek Shepherd to star in the medical drama Dr. Vegas?

Rob Lowe chose CBS's Dr. Vegas instead, and it was cancelled after five episodes had aired; the part he passed up ran for eleven seasons.

Sandra Oh was first invited to audition for which role before insisting on reading for Cristina?

Bailey was first imagined as a tiny blonde with curly hair, the one role written with a look in mind, until a single audition persuaded the show's creator to rewrite her.

Which nickname do his fellow interns give Alex Karev in Grey's Anatomy's first season?

Evil Spawn was the interns' answer to his sneering and constant come-ons in their first weeks together; he earned it again by stealing a surgery the others had been promised.

Which long-running daytime soap is taped at the same studios as Grey's Anatomy?

General Hospital, on air since 1963, is taped at The Prospect Studios, the old ABC lot where Grey's Anatomy has its sound stages, and one of the drama's stars has made several guest appearances on the soap next door.