Ellen Pompeo is finally out of scrubs in Good American Family first look

Ellen Pompeo played Grey Sloan Memorial's most repeatedly traumatized doctor for 19 seasons, but now she's moving on from McDreamy to the classic American dream—or so her character thinks. In her first role since leaving Grey's Anatomy in 2022, Pompeo is taking on a whole new type of fucked up family—this one the stuff of real-life tabloid fodder. 

Pompeo is playing Kristine Barnett in Hulu's Good American Family, a retelling of the 2010s-era Natalia Grace scandal. If you need a refresher, here's the series' official synopsis:

Told from multiple points of view, as a means to explore issues of perspective, bias, and trauma, this compelling drama is inspired by the disturbing stories surrounding a Midwestern couple (Pompeo and Mark Duplass) who adopts a girl with a rare form of dwarfism (Imogen Reid). But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, mystery emerges around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is. As they defend their family from the daughter they’ve grown to believe is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom.

Saying yes to the controversial role, especially after being so entrenched in the life of one character for so many years, was a difficult decision for Pompeo. "This is a scary thing for me to even entertain because it’s intense stuff, and it deals with children and it deals with children who are neurodivergent and have disabilities. This just seems like really tricky stuff," she told Vanity Fair of some of her hesitations. In the end, however, her agent reminded her that she'd "always been looking for something to show a completely different color than what you’ve been showing people for 20 years and this is it." "So I said, ‘Okay, well, let’s dig in,'" she recalled. 

She also felt like she had something to prove. "There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on me," the actor continued. "Why would anybody believe that I could do anything other than play Meredith Grey, myself included?" 

You can decide for yourself when the first two episodes of Good American Family premieres March 19 on Hulu. In the meantime, check out some first look images below:

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney

Courtesy of Disney