Grey’s Anatomy cast photo prompts questions as Ellen Pompeo spotted missing

Grey’s Anatomy season 23 is officially in production, but fans were quick to notice one glaring omission from the first cast photo.

Ellen Pompeo, who has appeared in the long-running ABC medical drama series as Meredith Grey since 2005, did not appear alongside other cast members at the table read.

In a photo shared to Instagram on 24 July, cast members Chandra Wilson, Debbie Allen, James Pickens Jr., Camilla Luddington and Caterina Scorsone posed alongside newcomers Trever Jackson, Adelaide Kane, Niko Terho, Harry Shum Jr. and Anthony Hill.

But while many fans celebrated the return of the show this autumn, others expressed their concern about Pompeo’s absence.

“GREY’s Anatomy but I don’t see a GREY... LOL HAAHAHAAHAA,” one viewer quipped.

Another fan asked: “Where’s Meredith?”

A third chimed in and said: “Ok so I’m not seeing Meredith??? The show is called Grey’s Anatomy but there’s not a single ‘grey’ in sight.”

Pompeo led the series for its first 18 seasons but she decided to scale back her time on screen beginning with season 19 in 2022.

“I’ve been doing it for 20 years, so it was time to step away,” she explained to El País in April 2025. “I have three children and I love spending time with them and I love being involved in their lives.”

The actress is mum to Stella, 16, Sienna, 11, and Eli, nine, whom she shares with husband Chris Ivery.

She continued: “I’m very lucky to be able to get to work sometimes and take time off. I have a nice balance in my life.”

The 56-year-old star has continued to narrate Grey’s Anatomy and serve as executive producer. She still appears in multiple episodes each season. She is expected to continue this for the upcoming 23rd season, Deadline reports.

Earlier this year, Pompeo lifted the lid on what happened behind the scenes on the show in its early days. During an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Pompeo wasn’t afraid to hold back on her co-stars either, having admitted she started crying when she had to do a love scene with T.R. Knight, who played George, and how she wasn’t really angry at Patrick Dempsey over their pay discrepancy.

With such a big cast behind the show, host Alex Cooper asked how she handled times when she didn’t get along with people.

Pompeo replied honestly: “Maybe not always the best – I think there’s no real road map to do it one way. I think it depends on the circumstance.

“Not everybody’s going to like you, and you have to be okay with that. I say that to [her eldest daughter] Stella all the time – you don’t like everybody, I don’t like everybody, so not everybody is going to like you, and that’s sometimes hard, but it’s just a fact of life and you have to just swallow that pill that you’re not everybody’s cup of tea.”

She said it was ‘challenging’, continuing: “I think what was hard for me on set for Grey’s is I felt like, because I did have a position of power, that I could advocate for certain people sometimes - and try to fight for people when they maybe didn’t feel like they had enough power.

“And then to have that not be well received, and people to say, ‘I don't need you to do that for me’, I thought, ‘Oh, yikes, so sorry.’

“I’ve learned so much, but what I’ve learned is every situation is different, you know?

“I’ve not always handled everything perfectly, obviously – I've stuck my foot in my mouth more times than I can choose, on the show and off it.”