Is Ellen Pompeo returning for Grey's Anatomy season 21? Explained

Shonda Rhimes's Grey's Anatomy season 21 is an American medical drama television series that has been on air for a long time. It initially aired in 2005 and depicts the personal and professional lives of surgical interns, residents, and attending physicians at the fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in Seattle.

The central character of the show is Meredith Grey, played by Ellen Pompeo. Pompeo has been a part of the show since its pilot and continues to be a main character through the years. Showrunner Meg Marinis confirmed in an interview with Los Angeles Times dated March 9, 2025, that Pompeo will star in 7 episodes of Grey's Anatomy season 21.

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Ellen Pompeo will be a part of the remaining episodes of Grey's Anatomy season 21

Ellen Pompeo, who plays Dr. Meredith Grey in Grey's Anatomy season 21, will feature in a minimum of seven episodes of the season that started on September 26, 2024. This comes as a rise from her limited features in seasons 19 and 20, where she concentrated on other endeavors.

Although she stepped down from a full-time position, Pompeo has continued to be an executive producer and still supplies the series' signature voiceovers. Viewers can expect more of Meredith Grey throughout Grey's Anatomy season 21. Meg Marinis said the following to the Los Angeles Times about Pompeo's role in the ongoing season,

"We’ve aired three 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 is about to premiere."

She continued,

"But we want her here as much as possible because she is the essence of the show; her voice-over, 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. Meredith’s relationship with Nick [Scott Speedman] is really important to me."

Marinis also talked about Meredith's love interests and how she plans to keep the essence of the character intact through her direction. She said,

"I love her being able to find love after Derek [Patrick Dempsey]. Scott Speedman is amazing. He’s so game to come here and play with us whenever he’s able to. It’s just staying true to her character as she’s evolved over 20 years and how she interacts with the new characters that we’ve brought, is really interesting to me."

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Ellen Pompeo's journey on Grey's Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo's story as Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy starts when she begins her surgical internship at Seattle Grace Hospital. Early in the series, Meredith enters into a complicated romance with attending neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd, unaware initially that he is married. As love prevails over obstacles, they marry and have three kids.

Meredith encounters numerous personal obstacles throughout the years when her mother passes away due to Alzheimer's, her half-sister Lexie dies in an airplane crash, and Derek fatally perishes after a car crash. In spite of these tragedies, she emerges as a famous surgeon and a role model at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

Over the seasons, Meredith tackles complex surgeries, teaches new generations of doctors, and even survives a brutal hospital shooting and a near-drowning. In later seasons, she focuses on groundbreaking Alzheimer’s research in Boston while balancing motherhood. Her journey from an intern to an award-winning doctor is loved by many fans of medical drama.

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Stay tuned for more updates on Grey's Anatomy season 21.