Take the BuddyTV Personality Quiz: Which Grey's Anatomy Character Are You? Born on November 10, 1969 in Everett Massachusetts, Ellen Pompeo lost her mother when she was a four year-old girl living in the Upper West Side of New York. Before she achieved success as an actress, Pompeo worked as !$#!#tail waitress in Miami, where she chanced upon fashion photographer, Andrew Rosenthal. After some time, she and Rosenthal went back to New York, where she found work as a SoHo Bar & Grill bartender. While working at the said establishment, Pompeo was offered several roles in television commercials, including ones that featured products from Citibank and L'Oreal.
In the hopes of getting better acting jobs, Pompeo relocated to Los Angeles in 2001. A year later, she got her first screen appearance in Brad Silberling's Moonlight Mile. This became an opportunity for her to work alongside Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon. Her performance was sensational as she received great reviews. She also got to work with Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrel in the hilarious film, Old School, and opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can. Before she landed the role of Meredith Grey in the television series, Grey's Anatomy, she was given guest roles on hit shows such as Law & Order and Friends .
In an interview with TV Guide, Pompeo said that she identifies with her character, Meredith Grey, in terms of not being overly serious about academics and finishing things in her own pace and time. She also feels proud of being able to convincingly portray a character who is extremely book smart, when in real life, Pompeo does not care much for classroom reading material.
Pompeo's work on Grey's Anatomy not only prompted the network to raise her salary to $200,000 per episode, but also earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series in 2007. In the same year, Pompeo got to share a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a TV Series-Drama with her Grey's Anatomy castmates.
In November of 2007, Pompeo got married to record producer Chris Ivery and took residence in Los Angeles.