Derek Shepherd

Derek Shepherd

Derek Christopher Shepherd is a fictional surgeon from the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. He is portrayed by actor Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey was nominated in 2006 and 2007 Golden Globe for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series Drama for the role.

About Derek Shepherd in brief

Summary Derek ShepherdDerek Christopher Shepherd is a fictional surgeon from the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. He is portrayed by actor Patrick Dempsey. Shepherd was formerly the Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West but abruptly resigned as chief in season 7 following the shooting. Dempsey was nominated in 2006 and 2007 Golden Globe for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series Drama for the role. Derek was married to Addison Montgomery before their divorce in 2007. Before his death in 2015, Derek was happily married to his longtime girlfriend and wife Meredith Grey. The couple has three children together. Derek is a Bowdoin College graduate and attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He specializes in highly complex tumors and conditions of the brain and spine. He has been known to expel staff or remove students from his service for being disrespectful about patients or if he deems their attitude to be detrimental to his patient’s well-being. Derek and Addison are still married, but their strained relationship and Shepherd’s disillusionment causes his career to stagnate, earning him the nicknames ‘Bad Shepherd’ and ‘McDreary’ The couple had planned to marry in season seven but their plans were ruined by a series of unfortunate events. In season seven, Derek treated a young African-American orphan, Zola Zola, for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and they decided to give their wedding up for adoption. In the season eight episode ‘IfThen’, Meredith dreams of an alternate universe where her mother never had Alzheimer’s; Derek is forced to have him removed as a patient.

Derek’s sister Nancy, particularly disliked her and repeatedly called her ‘the slutty intern’ as of season nine she still refuses to speak to Meredith or acknowledge her as her sister-in-law. He was a student of Dr. Richard Webber and was enticed to come with an offer he couldn’t refuse, which he eventually turned down. He had a one-night stand with Meredith Grey at a bar and soon finds out that she is an intern at SeattleGrace Hospital. His mother Carolyn approved as she felt Meredith’s gray perspective of life complemented Derek’s tendency to see everything in black and white. In seasons three and four, Derek and Meredith’s relationship becomes rocky and they take each time to take each other to other people to adopt a young orphan. Derek has a reputation for taking on ‘impossible’ cases that most of his peers would turn down. As an attending, he is both well-liked by patients and his scrub nurses for his compassion and polite bedside manner and feared by interns and residents who are intimidated by his reputation and high standards. His past eventually catches up with him when his estranged wife Addison moves to Seattle and is offered a position by Dr. Webber. He admits to Meredith that Addison cheating on him with Mark was partly his fault as an absentee husband. Addison eventually leaves Seattle for a private practice in Los Angeles, spawning the spin-off Private Practice.