List of Grey's Anatomy Characters - Supporting Characters - Family Members

Family Members

Meredith and Lexie's family

• Ellis Grey (Kate Burton, Sarah Paulson (1982 flashback)): Meredith's mother. She was a highly respected surgeon who trained at Seattle Grace with Dr. Webber. During their residency, she and Webber had an affair; she left her husband Thatcher for him, but he could not bring himself to leave his wife. After her residency, she left Seattle to take a position at Massachusetts General. She also worked at the Mayo Clinic. She won the Harper Avery Award twice, and she invented the laprascopic Grey method. She developed early onset Alzheimer's shortly before Meredith started medical school, and at the start of the show she had been placed in Roseridge Home for Extended Care, a nursing home. She died in the middle of Season 3 of cardiac arrest. In "Drowning on Dry Land" she appears to her daughter encouraging her to go back and live her life. She also appeared in an alternate reality episode from season 8, called If/then.
• Thatcher Grey (Jeff Perry): Father of Meredith and Lexie Grey. He was married to Ellis Grey, Meredith's mother, for about seven years. They divorced after she had an affair with Richard Webber. Thatcher blames Ellis somewhat for his estrangement from Meredith, saying Ellis was "cold" and wouldn't let him get to know his daughter. After the disintegration of his first family, Thatcher remained in Seattle and married his second wife, Susan. They had two daughters, Lexie and Molly. After Meredith moved to Seattle for her residency, Susan encouraged Thatcher and Meredith to develop a relationship. However, Susan's sudden death devastated Thatcher, and he blamed her death on Meredith. He became an alcoholic, and Lexie had to give up a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital to move to Seattle to care for her father. He eventually went to rehab and apologized to his daughters; however, his alcoholism had destroyed his liver, and Meredith had to give him a portion of hers to save his life.
• Susan Grey (Mare Winningham): The second wife of Thatcher Grey, and mother of Lexie Grey and Molly Grey Thompson. Susan was always aware of Thatcher's first wife and daughter, but she didn't meet Meredith until Molly was a patient at Seattle Grace. She reached out to Meredith and encouraged her to develop a relationship with Thatcher. At first, Meredith resisted Susan's attempts to mother her, but eventually she came to think of Susan as a surrogate mother. Susan died suddenly, following a rare complication from a routine procedure to treat her acid reflux and hiccups. Thatcher was devastated by her death and became an alcoholic.
• Molly Grey-Thompson (Mandy Siegfried): Daughter of Thatcher and Susan Grey, and Lexie's younger sister and Meredith's half-sister. She proposed to her husband, Eric, before he was shipped out by the military to be stationed in Iraq. Originally a patient at Mercy West, Molly transferred to Seattle Grace when she was 32 weeks pregnant and Addison operated to repair a congenital diaphragmatic hernia on Molly’s baby. She later gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Laura.
• Laura Thompson: Daughter of Molly Grey and Eric Thompson. Was born premature and was kept at Seattle Grace Hospital several weeks after her birth, prompting her grandfather to hang around.
• Zola Shepherd: Adoptive daughter of Meredith and Derek. She was brought over with the children from Africa, under the direction of Karev in season 7. She suffered from a spinal disease, but was treated by Derek with a shunt.

Derek's family

• Carolyn Maloney Shepherd (Tyne Daly): Derek's mother. Cared for Derek and his sisters after her husband was murdered.
• Addison Montgomery: Derek's ex-wife who cheated on him with Mark. She comes to Seattle at Richard's request and the two attempt to reconcile. She ultimately moves to Los Angeles.
• Kathleen Shepherd: One of Derek's sisters. Only mentioned on the show.
• Liz Shepherd (Neve Campbell): One of Derek's sisters.
• Nancy Shepherd (Embeth Davidtz): One of Derek's sisters. She slept with Mark as stated in the episode "Let The Angels Commit" when she told him, "Come on Derek. Everyone sleeps with Mark."
• Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone): Derek's sister and the youngest Shepherd child. She and Derek witnessed their father being murdered. She became addicted to prescription medication before crashing Derek's car while under the influence. Amelia works with Addison in Los Angeles and Amelia also slept with Mark as did Nancy and Addison before her.
• Zola Shepherd: Adoptive daughter of Meredith and Derek.

Cristina's family

• Helen Yang Rubenstein (Tsai Chin): Cristina's mother. Helen and Cristina's father divorced, and she remarried Dr. Saul Rubenstein, an oral surgeon, when Cristina was three. She thinks Cristina should focus more on getting married and less on her career.

Izzie's family

• Robbie Stevens (Sharon Lawrence): Izzie's mother. She works as a waitress.
• Hannah Klein (Liv Hutchings): Izzie's biological daughter, born when Izzie was sixteen years old. In the third season, Hannah is admitted to Seattle Grace Hospital with leukemia, and Izzie donates bone marrow to her. However, Hannah refuses to see her.

Dr. Webber's family

• Adele Webber (Loretta Devine): Dr. Webber's wife. She was frequently frustrated by his devotion to the hospital, and she eventually left him. She became pregnant with his child but had a miscarriage. They have since reconciled. She was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
• Camille Travis (Tessa Thompson / Camille Winbush): Daughter of Adele's sister Arlene and Dr. Webber and Adele's niece. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was fourteen, and the cancer returned when she was a senior in high school. Dr. Bailey ordered the interns to plan a prom in the hospital for her.
• Arlene Travis (Shelley Robertson): Adele's sister and Camille's mother.

George's family

• Harold O'Malley (George Dzundza): Father of George O'Malley. He was a truck driver with a passion for vintage cars. He was married for forty years to his wife, Louise, and they had three sons: Jerry, Ronny, and George. He was very proud of all of his sons, but he often had trouble relating to George. He was admitted to Seattle Grace with esophageal cancer that had spread to his stomach, as well as a leaking aortic valve. He underwent surgery to replace his aortic valve, which was successful, and later had a second surgery to determine the extent of the cancer. Prior to the second surgery, he had asked Dr. Webber and Dr. Bailey to remove the tumor regardless of the risk in order to give him a chance to fight the cancer. The surgery proved too much for his body, and after several days, he went into multi-system organ failure, which prompted the family to take him off life support.
• Louise O'Malley (Debra Monk): George's mother. She works as a teacher. George seems to find her a little overbearing, and is often embarrassed by her good-natured gestures, such as setting out breakfast for the interns during rounds and offering to iron his scrubs. She is a devout Catholic, and she is very upset when George and Callie get divorced.
• Jerry O'Malley (Greg Pitts): George's brother. He works at a dry cleaners.
• Ronny O'Malley (Tim Griffin): George's brother. He works at the post office.

Alex Karev's family

• Aaron Karev (Jake McLaughlin): Alex's younger brother. He works as a mover. He is very nice and polite, which is why Cristina named him "Angel Spawn" while she calls Alex "Evil Spawn". He comes to Seattle Grace with a hernia, which Dr. Bailey successfully repairs. He's very chatty and tells the doctors about his and Alex's troubled childhood. He is later diagnosed with schizophrenia after he suffers a psychotic break and tries to kill his younger sister, Amber. As a result, he has been committed to a psychiatric ward.
• Amber Karev: Alex's younger sister. She is a high school student. Aaron is trying to convince her to go to college, but she doesn't see the point.

Miranda Bailey's family

• Tucker Jones: Miranda's ex-husband who divorced her because she spent more time working than at home with him and Tuck. Tucker was operated on by Derek when he got into a car accident on his way to the hospital for their son's birth.
• William George "Tuck" Bailey Jones: Miranda's son with her ex-husband Tucker.

Mark Sloan's family

• Sloan Riley (Leven Rambin): Mark's biological daughter. As an 18-year old, she gives birth to Mark's grandson and puts him up for adoption.
• Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres: Mark's daughter with Calliope "Callie" Torres. She was born prematurely on March 31, 2011 . She was conceived after Mark and Callie began several trysts when the latter was left in the airport by Arizona Robbins.
• Grandson: Mark's grandson through Sloan who was given up for adoption.

Teddy Altman's family

• Henry Burton (Scott Foley): Husband of Dr. Theodora 'Teddy' Altman. She meets and marries him in season 7 so that he can use her health insurance to cover the ongoing costs of his treatment for Von Hippel-Lindau disease. He dies in season 8 while undergoing surgery.

Callie Torres's family

• Carlos Torres (Hector Elizondo): Father to Dr. Calliope 'Callie' Torres. He originally was against his daughter's homosexuality and relationship with Dr. Arizona Robbins.
• Lucia Torres (Gina Gallego): Mother to Dr. Calliope 'Callie' Torres. She has problems with accepting her daughter's sexuality and refused to attend her wedding with Arizona Robbins.
• Aria Torres: Callie's sister. Only mentioned on the show.
• Uncle Berto: Callie's uncle, whom she assumes might be gay as well, stating that "he hasn't been single for sixty years for no reason".
• Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres : Daughter, She was born prematurely on March 31, 2011 . She was conceived after Mark and Callie began several trysts when the latter was left in the airport by Arizona Robbins.
• Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw): Wife. Pediatric surgery attending, comes from a military family

Arizona Robbins' family

• Colonel Daniel Robbins, United States Marine Corps (Denis Arndt): Arizona's father.
• Barbara Robbins (Judith Ivey): Arizona's mother.
• Timothy Robbins: Arizona's brother. He died in the Iraq war.
• Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres : Stepdaughter. She was born prematurely on March 31, 2011 (Song Beneath the Song). She was conceived after Mark and Callie began several trysts when the latter was left in the airport by Arizona Robbins. She's not legally or biologically related to Arizona, but Callie and Arizona agreed on getting some sort of paper that would give Arizona some rights as Sofia's parent.
• Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez): Wife. Attending orthopedic surgeon at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital.

Jackson Avery's family

• Dr. Harper Avery: Harper is the grandfather of Jackson Avery and a world renowned surgeon.
• Dr. Catherine Avery: Avery's mother and brilliant urological surgeon, appeared at Seattle Grace Mercy West to perform the "first" penis transplant in the US. She also proctored the boards in San Francisco, when she also had a one night tryst with Dr. Webber.