Over 20 seasons and nearly as many years, Ellen Pompeo has been the face of one of the biggest medical dramas on television. She’s Meredith Grey, the titular physician of Grey’s Anatomy, and without her the longstanding series wouldn’t exist.
There’s an argument to be made for for another star’s potential to’ve taken the series just as far, had they been cast in Grey’s role instead of Pompeo, but the winning combination of the talented actress and award-winning creator and director Shonda Rhimes birthed one of television’s most persistently popular medical dramas.
It’s got heaps of competition, too, which makes its continued domination of the genre all the more impressive. As the show sets its sights on season 21 — which was greenlit in early April 2024 — Pompeo’s on-screen role is seeing a major reduction, but she’s still a vital part of the Grey’s Anatomy team. She’s just more interested in executive producing the series than acting in it. Pompeo’s spent nearly half her life in the role, by this point, so its fair she’s ready to set her sights elsewhere.
How old was Ellen Pompeo in season 1 of Grey’s Anatomy?
The first season of Grey’s Anatomy premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC, and established itself as a permanent fixture on the network within a few episodes. It introduced the world to the doctors and interns of Seattle Grace Hospital, including one Meredith Grey, an incoming intern with a fixation on the hospital’s head of neurosurgery.
When she first stepped into the role of Meredith, Pompeo was in her mid-30s. She fell right into the range of the typical medical resident at 36 years old during the show’s first season, and viewers have watched her grow from a struggling, love-lorn young woman to the mature, confident, and capable chief of general surgery. Over going on 20 years on the air, she’s aged from 36 to 54 before viewer’s eyes, and — despite her reduced role in recent seasons — her voiceovers and careful cameos continue to make Pompeo the heart and soul of the series.