Meet the Actor Playing the First Gay Male Doctor on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
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Grey’s Anatomy is finally getting its first gay doctor after 15 seasons. Alex Landi will play Dr. Nico Kim, a surgeon, when the long-running medical drama returns to ABC on September 27.
Landi, who is a half Korean and half Italian attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre in New York and later traveled to Asia to study martial arts. Grey’s Anatomy will be his first major role and, as others have noted, he seems allergic to keeping his shirt on.
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His character will be one of the few queer Asians on television, joining Conrad Ricamora’s Oliver Hampton on How to Get Away with Murder, also produced by Shonda Rhimes. But he’s not the first LGBTQ character at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital: Bi doctor Callie Torres (out actress and activist Sara Ramirez) and lesbian Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) left the show, the latter as part of a big cast turnover last year. “I hope the fans can embrace other storylines and other characters that we bring on, and Grey’s continues to be something fun for them to watch,” Camilla Luddington, who plays Dr. Jo Wilson, told ET about Capshaw’s departure and the cast changes. “Whenever you’re going to be saying goodbye to beloved characters, the fandom will always be upset, but honestly, what that shows to me is a passion and they love them so much, and the writers did an amazing job because people are so invested in them. And that’s why they feel that way. But seasons do change and I’m interested to see where season 15 goes.”
Grey’s Anatomy also has a rocky history with LGBTQ cast members: In 2007, Isaiah Washington allegedly called T.R. Knight a f*ggot during an on-set argument with another actor. Washington denied saying the word, but he was soon fired.
“I’ve never been called [that word],” Knight told Ellen DeGeneres shortly after the incident. “You know, you go through things in life and you lose friends when you go through the process, whatever your journey is. But I’ve never been called that to my face. So, I think when that happened something shifted and it became bigger you know what I mean, than myself.”
Then-GA star Katherine Heigl told reporters Washington “needs to just not speak in public.”
The new season will also see the arrival of Nashville‘s Chris Carmack as the hospital’s new “ortho god.” and the return of Kim Raver as Dr. Teddy Altman Jeff Perry as Meredith Grey’s father, Thatcher Grey.
