Is Ellen Pompeo still on Grey's Anatomy? Details revealed

It's been 20 years since Ellen Pompeo appeared on Grey's Anatomy as Meredith Grey, the titular character. In these 20 years, the audience has watched Meredith grow from a bumbling intern losing patients in the hallways of the hospitals to a world-class female surgeon with Catherine Fox awards to her name. While all of the actors who played Meredith's co-interns when Grey's originally premiered have since left the show, Ellen Pompeo has been a steady part of Grey's Anatomy as a series regular.

The audience watched Ellen Pompeo's character go from a person asking her one-night-stand (was he though?) to leave before she's back from her shower to having a house and kids with the love of her life, but the most long-standing relationship remains the one between Ellen Pompeo and Grey's Anatomy itself.

Lately, though, apart from her narrative voiceovers in the show, Ellen Pompeo's character is not seen as a series regular in the latest seasons of the show. Here's everything we know about Ellen Pompeo's role on Grey's Anatomy

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Is Ellen Pompeo still on Grey's Anatomy?

Ellen Pompeo has a deep history with the show and its titular character Meredith Grey. She appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show on April 2 and talked about her journey of being on the show for more than 20 years and her future in it. Hudson asked Pompeo if the fans could keep expecting more from the show after so many years. Pompeo had an affirmative reply to this saying that it can definitely be expected since the show has no ending in sight.

"I think for sure, yeah. I don't think that show will ever end. I don't know."

Further into the conversation, Hudson asked Pompeo if fans could expect more from her as well in regard to the show. She had a positive reply to that as well, saying that the show is her home, so she doesn't think there's ever going to be a point where she can completely step away from it. She might just keep popping in and out. The actress remarked,

"I’ll always pop in and out. That’s my home and I don’t think (my co-star, Debbie Allen) will let me ever leave completely"

Pompeo's character Meredith Grey has been a series regular on Grey's Anatomy for the past 20 years (the show premiered in 2005). It wasn't until the midseason finale of the 19th season of the show that it was revealed that her character would be moving with her kids to Boston.

Only a few months before this character arc, it was revealed by Variety that Pompeo would only be appearing in eight of the twenty episodes in that season. She returned to the finale episode of that season, but it was at this point that she stopped appearing as a series regular. Ellen's narrative voiceovers remained an equally important part of the Grey's Anatomy episodes.

In the trailer for the 20th season, released in December 2023, fans were delighted to notice Pompeo as Meredith, relieved to find out that she was still a part of the show. Pompeo had herself announced that she would be stepping back from her role as Meredith Grey but wasn't completely leaving the show. Ellen Pompeo has also been an executive producer on Grey's Anatomy since 2022 and has even made her directorial debut on the show.

Ellen appeared in 5 of the 10 episodes of Season 20, including both the season premiere and the season finale. Season 21 of Grey's Anatomy has 18 episodes, out of which 13 have already premiered. Out of these 18 episodes, Pompeo is pinned for 7 episodes, a number that can increase as the story arcs continue to develop.

Grey's Anatomy's Showrunner, Meg Marinis, in an interview with LA Times back in March, talked about the show's policy with Pompeo and her story arcs.

"We’ve aired three (now more) with her, so you at least have four more and I’m just gonna let y’all continue to watch to see what else you get. With Ellen, we always want her to be here as much as she can and she wants. That’s an open conversation moving forward. After this season, we have yet to have those conversations because her show ['Good American Family'] is about to premiere. But we want her here as much as possible because she is the essence of the show; her voiceover, it is still in every episode. What we did this last season, we tried to look at her episodes as groups of episodes because it’s more fun to tell an arc with Meredith, rather than a bunch of different one-offs."

Pompeo also resonated with this idea in her conversation with Radio Times and spoke about her role on Grey's Anatomy,

"I do know that I'm very grateful for having this 21-season run on the show, and that place (Grey's Anatomy) is very special to me, and the show is very special to me, and the love that I get from the fans is very special. So I sort of try to stay in the present. I don't know what will be in the future, and I know that it's important to everybody involved that I stay involved a little bit and I appreciate that."

"So I'm happy that I have the privilege to be able to dip in there (Grey's Anatomy) and dip out and get the opportunity to do other things and explore my creative opportunities, but also get to still be a part of that. It's nothing, really, but a privilege."

It's a privilege for Ellen Pompeo to be on Grey's Anatomy, and that is a reciprocated relationship. The fans are also always glad to see Ellen Pompeo on the screen as Meredith Grey, so it all works out for the showrunners.

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