'Grey’s Anatomy' Is Adding a New Gay Character in Season 21

The Big Picture

Grey’s Anatomy adds openly gay chaplain for Season 21, coinciding with Jake Borelli’s exit.
Dr. Levi Schmitt pursues peds’ fellowship, while Mika Yasuda exits to wrap up storyline.
Ellen Pompeo’s return as Dr. Meredith Grey set to appear in at least seven episodes of Season 21.

Grey’s Anatomy is adding a new character to its upcoming season, and not just anyone but an openly gay chaplain, right before Jake Borelli’s exit. Per TVLine, the new star will be included throughout Season 21, set to premiere this Fall, but no precise details have been unveiled yet regarding this character. This comes just months before Borelli, popularly known for portraying the gay Dr. Levi Schmitt on the long-running show, announced his exit after starring as a series regular for five seasons.

Besides Dr. Levi, Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital lost another employee, one of their best interns, Mika Yasuda (Midori Francis), who will only return next season to wrap up her character’s storyline. Fans will recall that in Season 20’s finale, Levi was passionately pursuing a peds’ fellowship while Mika, following her split from Helm, was very close to sharing a kiss with her best friend Jules.

One more Season 21 update that got fans bonkers was the return of the legendary Ellen Pompeo, who previously withdrew from the series in 2023. It was recently revealed that Pompeo’s Dr. Meredith Grey will make a major return to the show’s upcoming season. She is set to be in at least seven of the eighteen episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and possibly as many as fourteen episodes, almost like she never left at all.

Why Is Borelli Leaving ‘Grey’s Anatomy?’

Image via ABC

At the time of Borelli’s exit announcement, it was revealed that he would return in the next season for several episodes, like Francis, to conclude his character’s storyline before taking his final leave. Possible reasons behind his departure included budget cuts tied to the show’s renewal, which in turn affected the cast’s episodic guarantees. Renewing a long-running series like Grey’s Anatomy, especially with a veteran cast, is no small amount of money, and a renewal often requires budget cuts, mostly impacting the cast.

Nevertheless, fans would agree that Borelli had a great run on the show since first arriving at the start of Season 14 as a fourth-year medical student on a six-week intern rotation. Later on, the ambitious intern interviewed for the hospital’s residency program and was accepted. Although Dr. Levi’s journey was not always a bed of roses with his clumsy personality, eventually, he gained more confidence and became a senior resident, working with a new set of interns at Grey Sloan.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 will premiere on Thursday, September 26, while the past seasons are available to stream on Hulu.