Fans can’t get enough of Grey’s Anatomy: It was the second most-streamed TV series in 2024. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Ellen Pompeo — who stars as Meredith Grey — returned for more episodes during Season 21 last year than she had since scaling back her appearances in 2022 to work on other Hulu projects. (She’s remained the show’s narrator throughout its run.)
“We’re an open-door policy with her,” showrunner Meg Marinis told The Hollywood Reporter in September. “When we can have Ellen on set and in the episodes, we love to have her.”
Considering Ellen, 55, makes nearly $600,000 per episode, that’s quite a nice position to be in. But she hasn’t always been so blessed. “My life started out with tragedy,” Ellen, whose mom died of an overdose when she was five, told Good Housekeeping. “I was pathetically insecure. I didn’t have a mother to tell me how amazing I was.”
The youngest of six, she was shuffled among relatives, but an aunt and uncle who took her to an NYC theater changed her life forever. “Afterward, I stood up and said, ‘That’s what I want to be,’” Ellen once recalled to Allure. “‘That’s what I want to do.’”
And she did! After smaller roles, she won raves in the film Moonlight Mile, and eventually ABC offered her the lead in Grey’s. The series, which debuted in 2005, became a massive hit and made her a household name. But when Ellen married record producer Chris Ivery in 2007, she realized it also allowed her to create the loving family environment she never had.
“A healthy home life was more important than career,” Ellen — who is mom to Stella, 15, Sienna, 10, and Eli, 8 — said on the “Jemele Hill is Unbothered” podcast. “To have a happy home life was really something I needed to complete, to close the hole in my heart, and so I made a decision to make money and not chase creative acting roles.”
Ellen Pompeo Living Life on Her Own Terms
With her family as her strength, Ellen had the courage to ask for what she deserved in contract negotiations. In 2018, she revealed to THR that she’d signed a deal that made her one of the highest-paid women in TV, earning $20M a year — after years of being paid less than costar Patrick Dempsey, 59. “I wanted to show my struggles,” she told E! News. “But if you’re bold and you do speak up and if you do say unpopular things then you just might be part of some change.”
This March, she’s going bold again, starring in the first of her Hulu projects, the miniseries Good American Family, inspired by the story of Natalia Grace. “I have not done anything new in 20 years,” Ellen spilled to Vanity Fair. “I have a lot to prove here!”
