The Grey’s Anatomy Characters That Most Closely Resemble Shonda Rhimes

“Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes put a lot of thought into developing her characters. Katherine Heigl told Entertainment Weekly that the showrunner was always “really great” about giving a backstory to explain what the characters were thinking ahead of each scene. And it turns out that some of the backstories came from Rhimes’ own life.

In an interview with O: The Oprah Magazine, Rhimes revealed that the characters Meredith Grey and Cristina Yang were the most like her. “There’s a side to Meredith that keeps everything together at work,” she said. “I do that. And like Cristina, I sometimes open my mouth and say things I just shouldn’t say. I do that less now. I’m learning.”

Rhimes also spoke about her semi-fictional alter egos in an interview with TV Guide. She explained that Meredith Grey’s “dark and twisty” personality is much like her own and that the character of Cristina Yang actually “voiced” her own dreams for herself. “She had a genius that she chased. She loved her work,” Rhimes explained. “I wanted to watch her fight that feminist battle and win,” she said, before adding that the character was “the walking validation of my dreams.”