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.
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Grey’s Anatomy’s 35 All-Time Best Characters, Ranked: Which Docs Rock?
Charlie Mason
Charlie Mason
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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.
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!
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Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC -
Erica Hahn
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Denny Duquette
Image Credit: ABC/Everett Collection 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).
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Carina DeLuca
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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).
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Preston Burke
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Taryn Helm
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Tom Koracick
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.”
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Catherine Fox
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Ben Warren
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Andrew DeLuca
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Owen Hunt
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Nick Marsh
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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…
totallymostly worth the wait. -
Ellis Grey
Image Credit: ABC/Everett Collection 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.
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Teddy Altman
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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?
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Atticus Lincoln
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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
sheJo does. -
Stephanie Edwards
Image Credit: ABC/Everett Collection 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.
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Levi Schmitt
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC We didn’t need, ahem, glasses to see that the show had something special in nerdtastic Jake Borelli’s “outward-bound”
internresident, the long-running drama’s first gay male series-regular character. -
Maggie Pierce
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.)
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April Kepner
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Jo Wilson
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Jackson Avery
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Amelia Shepherd
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Arizona Robbins
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Callie Torres
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Lexie Grey
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Izzie Stevens
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Addison Montgomery
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Mark Sloan
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Richard Webber
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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George O’Malley
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.”
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Derek Shepherd
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Miranda Bailey
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Alex Karev
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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.
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Meredith Grey
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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?
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Cristina Yang
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC 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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I would’ve started a riot if Yang wasn’t no1
Agreed. Cristina Yang was the best.
Why? I feel they only made her number one to shock us. They know that everyone expected Mere to be number one.
Anyone who’s watched the show knows that Yang is actually the best character though. Nothing shocking with this decision.
I like Nick but he’s been in like 8 episodes and he’s ranked ahead of Maggie, Teddy, Levi, DeLuca and Tom?!
Owen Hunt is too high on whatever list he’s not dead last. Love Kevin McKidd, a wonderful person. Owen Hunt, however, a toxic character.
yes THANK U lol what i was thinking 2, just sounded bitcie when i wrote it lol
Agreed.
OMG…..yes! I never liked his character. He was mentally and emotionally manipulative and abusive towards Cristina. And I don’t mean the PTSD episode he had. I don’t blame him for that. I mean emotionally abusive.
This whole list is absolutely insane.
Owen is literally the worst
The Top 10 says it all. They are Grey’s Anatomy and always will be!
thats a joke right ?? u put ”nick” another boring straight white doctor whos been in like 10 episode 6 spots ahead of levi? 15 years awaiting on a gay doctor and hes been in like 80 episodes and has been mostly the only sorce of light and funny in the show for year and u put NICK ahead of him ? are yall high lol also merideth should b 30 coz ellen hasent acted in this show in like 5 seasons shes just playing herself at this points all her mer bits are long gone
Any ‘light and funny’ surrounding Levi disappeared in that pool of blood a few episodes ago. I completely agree about Meredith. I haven’t enjoyed her character for at least 6 seasons. But the show is kind of centered around her…. so it is kind of inevitable that she is in the top 10.
He’s been in 30 episodes
Love seeing Addison in the top 10. I would put Bailey MUCH higher, Amelia and Owen MUCH lower.
Kai? Nick Marsh? on this list OF ALL TIME? Yeah, no.
Yang Forever!
Callie and Arizona behind April Kepner? No. Callie is 11, 12 and 13 Arizona and Lexie can fight it out for.
I’m not sure what list YOU read, but the list *I* read put April at 17, Callie at 12, and Arizona at 13. Last I checked, 12 & 13 came in ahead of 17.
I recently began with S1E1 and made it through S10E8. I stopped because I can’t face Derek allegedly cheating on Meredith, then dying. I realize this was all Shonda. Up to that point the loss of George and Denny were my heartbreak. I refused to grieve with Meredith.
I agree with #1 but Miranda Bailey deserves to be in the top 5. This list has a terrible order LOL.
EXACTLY! Top 3 even. Also even an underused and Nico is he should have made the list before Scott Friedman. I’m not seeing this chemistry that everyone keeps talking about. Cali, Avery and Linc should have been hovering around top 10 if not top 10.
I know I’m going to go against popular opinion here, but Meredith Grey might be my least favorite character ever on the show. Liked her so-so in the earlier seasons, but really after Derek died she just became a chore. I watch now for everyone else, even her kids.
Totally agree.
You’re not the only one; I’ve found her to be terribly unsympathethic since day one. I’m absolutely good with Yang at #1, but Bailey should’ve been #2.
Completely agree with you. She was never the reason I watched the show. Christina as No. 1 makes all the sense in the world, but IMHO Meredith is too high on the list.
I watched five seasons of this show for Chyler Leigh and Chyler Leigh alone. RIP Lexie.
I’m happy greys has a non bio actor but let’s face it Kai is a pretty boring character and the acting isn’t great. Also teddy, Owen , Maggie, and Amelia should be lower.
Don’t like kai at all, she states she wants to be the next Dr mcdreamy. Is she kidding, never never never will he she be Dr mcdreamy, no one ever will, that’s your place for ever Derek
I put Dahlia Qadri, Heather Brooks, Lucy Fields, Nico Kim, Nicole Herman, Stephanie Edwards or Sydney Heron before Kai Bartley or Nick Marsh. Dr. Edwards was on for five seasons!
Or Ndugu, Riggs or Adele. Anyone over Bartley.
Where is izzie’s hot hubbie who died of the heart transplant!
He was and should be #1
Meredith Gray should be no.1. She’s still there.
Man, I was starting to worry you’d forgotten about George! So happy to see him at #5.
I’m so glad that Christina Yang was picked for number one she was the best and is still missed to this day
Maggie at 21 is just wrong. Especially when you put newbies & randoms so high up. Also the snide comment about her dating her “step brother” (I hated that too) but no such swipe on Jackson? Weird.
Arizona & Jo being above Amelia is ridiculous. & while I agree with April’s ranking, your caption seems more like a diss.
The only thing unarguable? Cristina at no 1.
I hate your list. As a fan of the 18 seasons whose watched many a time I cant go along with your list. Jo helped recreate an abdominal wall and grow baby livers from scratch. Where as Alex saved just one life with a ping pong ball. There are a numerous amount of variables that make the best doctors and you haven’t even shared your criteria. #yousuck #greysforever
Bailey should have been at No. 2. She’s always been the heart of the show. Noone could beat Christina, though, so No. 1 is spot on.
I love U CRISTINA YANG🥰🥰🥰
Kai and Nick are on here but no mention of Carina or Stephanie?
They’re both on the list?
As a huge fan of the very talented Kate Burton I think you made a big mistake by leaving out the other Dr. Grey, Meredith’s fault-finding mother Ellis.
Ellis is on the list