Dr. Meredith Grey is the daughter of world-renowned surgeon Ellis Grey, and grew up in her shadow. Ellis was a deeply flawed, emotionally and verbally abusive, neglectful mother towards Meredith. Meredith is described as a "dark and twisty," damaged person who sees the world in
varying shades of gray morality. Because of this, she is an emotionally complex person capable of empathizing with others when they're at their lowest points, and a sensitive observer of the people around her. Meredith is a graduate of Dartmouth College and nearly did not attend med school due to conflicts with her mother. Meredith was directionless after obtaining her undergrad and had plans to sleep and party her way through Europe. After a month abroad, Meredith was called back to care for Ellis, who had developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and Meredith obtained her M.D.
The night before Grey's internship begins, she has a one-night stand with Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), a stranger she meets at a bar. She discovers the next day that he is the recently-hired attending and new head of neurosurgery at her new workplace, Seattle Grace Hospital. Grey is assigned to work under resident Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), and befriends her fellow interns, George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers).
Grey is particularly close with Cristina Yang, who becomes her best friend and "person". Though she initially thinks poorly of him, Alex Karev also evolves into Grey's "person" and the two assume a sibling-esque familial relationship as the seasons progress. Meredith has a conflicted relationship with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), the Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace. Webber was very close to Ellis when Grey was a child, which inclines him to save or mentor Grey and make exceptions for her. Grey has a habit of "collecting strays", allowing her friends and coworkers to live in the house her mother left her and become her pseudo-family. Meredith is endlessly loyal to those she deems her family, and bends traditional morality as needed in order to keep them safe.
Having literally grown up in a hospital, Grey shows immense natural talent. She possesses a steadfast, calm ease during medical procedures and emergencies, and is a natural observer of people. Grey exhibits a knack for catching subtle hints and accurately determining difficult-to-catch diagnoses. Her placid, non-judgmental bedside manner often causes people to open up and trust her. Her surgical skills are solidly impressive and Grey shows a talent and patience for medical research trials and dealing with psychologically damaged patients.