Do we like Ellen Pompeo?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Years of public support for LGBTQ+ kids and speaking up against Trump's deportation push, with one clumsy 2018 remark she walked back.
Pompeo is the face of Grey's Anatomy, the ABC medical drama that made her Meredith Grey for close to two decades. She has since stepped back from on-screen work on it, though she remains an executive producer and narrates the show. Her new chapter is as a producer with her own company, Calamity Jane.
The Hollywood start wasn't glamorous. At her Walk of Fame ceremony in April 2025 she recalled crashing at castmate Dash Mihok's place in her early LA days when money was tight. She thanked the "brilliant women" behind her, naming Shonda Rhimes and Dana Walden, and said it "takes a village".
On the harm test, the record is clean and a bit better than that. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2018 she got teary describing a gay teenager who said Grey's helped him come out to his parents. She said that's why she keeps doing the show. We found nothing campaigning against anyone's rights, and no slide into conspiracy theories.
She's also been vocal against Trump's hard line on immigration. On The View in March 2025 she asked why only old white men are allowed to be felons, a jab at his criminal conviction and deportation push. At Tribeca in June 2025, on the day of the No Kings protests, she criticised his aggression and said more women are needed in power. That's her view; Trump's supporters would see it differently.
The stains are small but real. A 2018 Oxford Union clip resurfaced in 2020 in which she discussed the allegations against Harvey Weinstein and seemed to put some blame on his accusers. She said the clip was out of context and that she knew of harassment allegations back then, not assault allegations. She also admitted she hadn't read the New York Times report. Whether that satisfies you is a close call, but she didn't dig in.