9 ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Stars Who Headlined Their Own Shows (PHOTOS)

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Ben Cohen/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank; Mitch Haddad/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank; Kelsey McNeal/ABC via Getty images
Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh)
BBC AMERICA

Sandra Oh

After her 10-season, Golden Globe-winning role as Cristina Yang on Grey’s, Oh won even more critical praise with her next full-time TV job: playing MI5 officer Eve Polastri on Killing Eve. Her performance on the BBC America drama won her her second Golden Globe earlier this year.

Katherine Heigl in State of Affairs - Season 1
Ben Cohen/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Katherine Heigl

Heigl played Izzie Stevens for the first five and a half seasons of Grey’s, then tried to plot TV comebacks by playing CIA analyst Charlie Tucker in the NBC spy drama State of Affairs (above) and defense attorney Sadie Ellis CBS legal drama Doubt. Both shows only lasted one season, but nowadays Heigl is back on TV in the USA show Suits.

Patrick Dempsey
Epix

Patrick Dempsey

Dempsey, who quit playing Derek Shepherd amid much outcry in 2015, stars in the upcoming Epix drama The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, playing a famous writer accused of murdering a teenager.

Kate Walsh in Private Practice - Season Five
Kelsey McNeal/ABC via Getty images

Kate Walsh

You surely know that Walsh left Grey’s after Season 3 to star as Addison Montgomery in Private Practice, the show’s first spin-off. What you may not have realized is that she also starred in the NBC legal comedy Bad Judge, which was canceled during its first season amid negative reviews.

Eric Dane in The Last Ship - Season 4
Ali Goldstein/TNT

Eric Dane

After leaving Grey’s in the ABC drama’s ninth season, Dane took the lead role of Admiral Tom Chandler in The Last Ship, a TNT post-apocalyptic military drama that lasted for five seasons.

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NBC

Chyler Leigh

These days, the actress formerly known as Lexie Grey is a supporting player on The CW’s Supergirl, but in 2014, she starred in a short-lived, French-American NBC police action-comedy titled Taxi Brooklyn, playing an NYPD detective who teams up with a Brooklyn cabbie.

Kevin McKidd in Journeyman
Mitch Haddad/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Kevin McKidd

Before he joined Grey’s as Owen Hunt in Season 5, McKidd was best known for co-headlining the HBO drama Rome, on which he played fictionalized soldier Lucius Vorenus, and leading the cast of the one-season NBC drama Journeyman (above), on which he portrayed time-traveling reporter Dan Vasser.

caterina-scorsone
Lifetime

Caterina Scorsone

Canadian audiences knew Scorsone before she started playing Amelia Shepherd on Private Practice: The actress starred as FBI Agent Jess Mastriani in the crime drama Missing, alongside a cast that included Gloria Reuben, Vivica A. Fox, and Mark Consuelos.

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Curtis Baker/SundanceTV

Martin Henderson

Henderson starred on Grey’s as Mer’s love interest Nathan Riggs, but prior to that, he starred in the original, Australian version of the drama Secrets & Lies — playing the part Ryan Phillippe portrayed in the American version — then played the police officer protagonist in the SundanceTV drama The Red Road (above) opposite Jason Momoa.

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After spending years in the Grey’s Anatomy ensemble — and getting let go from the ABC drama in Season 14 — Sarah Drew may finally get to star in her own TV show.

The actress we know and love as April Kepner is headlining the CBS drama pilot The Republic of Sarah, playing the young mayor of a small New Hampshire town that declares itself an independent nation after discovering a valuable resource within the town limits.

If CBS orders the show to series, Drew would be one of many Grey’s stars and alums who appeared at the top of a TV show’s call sheet. Here are the others…