Grey’s Anatomy’s 35 All-Time Best Characters, Ranked: Which Docs Rock?
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Over the course of its 20-and-counting seasons of around-the-clock docs, Grey’s Anatomy has introduced what seems like as many characters as cases-of-the-week. But even among the best of the best, not all characters are created equal — or at least they certainly don’t make equally big impressions.
With that in mind, TVLine has re-taken on the daunting task of ranking the top-rated ABC drama’s all-time greatest characters, from those who’ve only generated the occasional mild heart murmur to those who have consistently caused rapid palpitations. And this time around, we’ve tried to incorporate more of your feedback from the original list.
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Included in countdown 2.0 are, of course, the all-stars that you would expect, nay, demand: the doctor whose surname gives the series its title, her so-called twisted sister, the elder statesman whose methods have occasionally bordered on madness, the plucky heroine whose death scene damn near killed us…
But our Top 35 also includes a few surprises, like the newcomer who most definitely passed their “lab test” with an intrigued colleague, the snarktastic jerkface whose egotism masks untold depth and an M.D. who, based on your aprés-recaps comments, as many of you loathe as like.
But hey, at least no one is ambivalent about him. (We all know that’s worse!)
To see which characters made it into our Top 35, just keep scrolling, then hit the comments with the characters that you still think should’ve been placed higher, lower or altogether eliminated!
35. Kai Bartley
It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to figure out why nonbinary actor E.R. Fightmaster’s character is on this list: From the jump, the Grey Center researcher fascinated us every bit as much as they did Amelia. In other words, a lot.
34. Erica Hahn
We were still getting to know — and love — Brooke Smith’s character back in Season 5 when time-of-death was called on her budding romance with Callie, and she was sent packing in an exit that, to this day, we can’t get over.
33. Denny Duquette
Granted, we could’ve done without his post-mortem tryst with Izzie. But there wasn’t a ghost of a chance that we’d omit from this revamp of the list the patient that Jeffrey Dean Morgan brought to life (and then some).
32. Carina DeLuca
What’s Italian for “adds life to any scene that she’s in”? Whatever the correct translation is, it’s the perfect one to describe Stefania Spampinato’s passionate OB-GYN, who never fails to put the accent on vivacity (even now that she’s crossed over to Station 19).
31. Preston Burke
Although the way that both he and portrayer Isaiah Washington exited Grey’s Anatomy left a nasty aftertaste, Burke’s significance to the series — and, in particular, Cristina — can’t be discounted.
30. Taryn Helm
In Season 19, Jaicy Elliot’s spunky character gave up bartending to go back to mixing it up at Grey Sloan. Now, if only the show would allot enough time for us to really savor Hellmouth’s first romance to amount to more than her crush on Mer.
29. Tom Koracick
Odds are that you wanted — you badly wanted — to loathe Greg Germann’s abrasive former “chief of chiefs.” But, as he once told lover Teddy when she tried to deny her feelings for him, “Spoiler alert: You can’t.”
28. Catherine Fox
As rich and powerful as she is brilliant and outspoken, Richard’s better half, as played by the estimable Debbie Allen, delivers with every visit to Seattle the equivalent of a 1,000-volt charge from a defibrillator.
27. Ben Warren
Despite the fact that Jason George’s character left the operating room for Station 19’s firehouse, we still carry a torch for Bailey’s heroic husband. Safely carry a torch, we hasten to add. Extinguishers at the ready.
26. Andrew DeLuca
From the moment that Giacomo Gianniotti joined the cast with the McDreamiest swoop of hair this side of Patrick Dempsey, we had… How would the troubled young Romeo have put it? Un vero debole per DeLuca.
25. Owen Hunt
Kevin McKidd’s lightning rod of a character is as frustrating as he is heroic — and that’s exactly what makes him so electric. He can be dumb. He can be selfish. He can make you want to face-palm (and we have!). But he never makes us want to see what’s on another channel.
24. Nick Marsh
Four seasons (!) the show made us wait before bringing Scott Speedman back to capitalize on the sparks that flew between his alter ego and Mer in his one and only appearance in Season 14. And yet… totally mostly worth the wait.
23. Ellis Grey
Kate Burton’s flinty alter ego was never going to be a contender for Mother of the Year — unless, that is, the award was given to the parent who turned out the most impressive children. If it was, Mer and Maggie would’ve won it for her with ease.
22. Teddy Altman
Hail to the (latest) chief! In a crisis, there’s no one that we would want around more than Kim Raver’s indefatigable alter ego. Well… except for the fact that wherever she goes, crises seem to follow. Is there an “unsubscribe” button that she’s just not finding?
21. Atticus Lincoln
We’ll admit that, at first, we didn’t get Chris Carmack’s ortho god. Once the human Ken doll was paired with Amelia, though, we not only got him, we got it baaad. Now we couldn’t love him any more than she Jo does.
20. Stephanie Edwards
Jerrika Hinton’s surgical resident proved over and over again that she had all the fire it takes to be a world-class doctor. If only she hadn’t flamed out following a devastating Season 13 blaze at the hospital.
19. Levi Schmitt
We didn’t need, ahem, glasses to see that the show had something special in nerdtastic Jake Borelli’s “outward-bound” intern resident, the long-running drama’s first gay male series-regular character.
18. Maggie Pierce
You know a character is pretty freakin’ adorkable if, like we are with Kelly McCreary’s grownup child prodigy, we’re willing to overlook her disastrous — and still-much-mocked — romance with her stepbrother. (Of note: Yes, she is the only character in this very specialized category.)
17. April Kepner
Lord have mercy, Sarah Drew’s character could be a right headache. Yet there was an earnestness about her, an at-times-trying sincerity that ultimately made her less annoying than she was compelling.
16. Jo Wilson
Since Season 9, we’ve watched Camilla Luddington grow the former Brooke Stadler into a formidable force to be reckoned with, one whose future is written — illegibly, in a doctor’s scrawl — on a prescription pad.
15. Jackson Avery
Oh, c’mon, he’s more than just another pretty face — or, as Maggie once called him, a chiseled Mr. Monopoly. Jesse Williams’ on-screen counterpart is as complicated as a particularly difficult rhinoplasty. Oh, and pretty.
14. Amelia Shepherd
Who knew that all it would take was the removal of one pesky brain tumor to transform Caterina Scorsone’s Private Practice transplant from infuriating to utterly endearing? Well… mostly.
13. Arizona Robbins
No one could possibly describe Jessica Capshaw’s Roller Girl better than she herself could: “I’m a human rainbow,” she once said. Not only that, but she was a human rainbow at which we never — OK, rarely — failed to marvel.
12. Callie Torres
Few and far between are the characters that are as fierce and free as Sara Ramirez’s. We’d suggest that we all dance it out in our undies in their honor, but we have neither the moves nor the skivvies to pull it off.
11. Lexie Grey
The heart-shredding ending of Chyler Leigh’s story as the first of Meredith’s half sisters couldn’t possibly have been “meant to be” what it was. The rest of her boisterous Seasons 3-8 run, on the other hand, did indeed smack of fate.
10. Izzie Stevens
Seriously?!? Yes, seriously! Even after more than a decade off the show, Katherine Heigl’s polarizing character — Karev’s surprising endgame — resonates, for better and worse.
9. Addison Montgomery
Kate Walsh’s alter ego had us at “… and you must be the woman who’s been screwing my husband,” and she never let go. We were so enamored, we even followed her to Private Practice for six seasons.
8. Mark Sloan
Seven words: “If you love someone, you tell them.” That, and one of the more legendary towel scenes in television history, assured that Eric Dane’s McSteamy would rank high in Grey’s Anatomy’s Hall of Fame.
7. Richard Webber
One of the enduring ABC drama’s last three OGs standing, James Pickens Jr.’s Grey Sloan counterpart is sorta like the series’ old reliable: grumpy, funny and, blessedly, as unpredictable as any of the whippersnappers he’s mentored.
6. George O’Malley
T.R. Knight’s beloved character could never be John Doe to us. Not after he taught us that “just because you can’t say something doesn’t mean you don’t want to.” That’s life, after all. “And life… sucks.”
5. Derek Shepherd
In addition to convincing us that every day — at least every Thursday — was “a beautiful day to save lives,” Patrick Dempsey’s McDreamy made us completely rethink the romantic possibilities of Post-Its.
4. Miranda Bailey
No wonder Chandra Wilson’s former chief, while mellower in recent years than in her past as The Nazi, suffered a heart attack in Season 14: Hers is, after all, bigger and arguably more open than most. Just look at the way she reacted to George’s passing.
3. Alex Karev
Some would say that Justin Chambers’ former Evil Spawn came full circle when he left his wife with a Dear Jo letter. However, even they would have to agree that he showed us a devil of a good time along the way.
2. Meredith Grey
Cristina nailed it when she told her person, “You are the sun”; for 19 seasons, the whole series orbited around Ellen Pompeo’s titular character. But if she’s not No. 1, who is?
1. Cristina Yang
We know the show was never Yang’s Anatomy — although we’d totally have watched that. Still, for pathos and hilarity, prickliness and sheer brilliance, Sandra Oh’s much-missed alter ego is now and ever shall be our go-to.
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