"Shrill" Alum E.R. Fightmaster to Recur as "Grey's Anatomy's" First Nonbinary Doctor
by Alexandra Del Rosario
October 27, 2021


"Shrill" alum E.R. Fightmaster has joined the cast of ABC’s "Grey’s Anatomy" as the series’ first nonbinary doctor.

They will recur as Dr. Kai Bartley. Fightmaster first made their "Grey’s Anatomy" debut as Dr. Bartely in the series’ most recent installment “Hotter Than Hell,” which welcomed Kate Walsh’s Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery back to the scene. They are part of the Parkinson’s research team in Minnesota.

“They are dedicated to their craft and extremely talented at what they do. Confident as hell and able to make even the most detailed and mundane science seem exciting and cool, Kai and Amelia bond over their shared love of medicine and the brain,” the official ABC description reads.

https://deadline.com/2021/10/greys-anatomy-shrill-alum-e-r-fightmaster-to-recur-as-abc-dramas-first-nonbinary-doctor-1234863445/

Oh. this should be .... interesting.

E.R. Fightmaster on playing Grey's Anatomy's first non-binary doctor: "The writers are writing scripts that treat nonbinary like it's casual" (https://www.etonline.com/greys-anatomy-er-fightmaster-on-how-a-self-tape-audition-turned-into-a-career-highlight-exclusive)

"Nonbinary is a thing that's just naturally respected," says Fightmaster, who auditioned via self-tape. "That makes me feel very good as an artist but also as a non-binary person myself. That identity isn't being talked about like something that needs to be negotiated. My identity is just there. It's just on screen." How much of the character was already written? Was Fightmaster able to insert your own experiences or shape the character to who you are? "If you watch the show long enough... you could watch it over three episodes and derive this but all of the characters have this incredible ability to go back and forth from being great at what they do and then also being sexy, fun people," they said. "When I read the sides, it was very easy for me to understand that this doctor was not just going to be reading medical terms. I needed to infuse a lot of chemistry and immediate interpersonal details into the script itself. The writing was already beautiful, but the writing was in a way I thought that it gave me the ability to add exactly who I am to the script."

E.R. Fightmaster: Why being Grey's Anatomy's first non-binary character is so significant (https://deadline.com/2021/11/greys-anatomys-er-fightmaster-caterina-scorsone-queer-romance-qa-1234871712/)

“If you look at the show like Grey’s, obviously the fanbase is interested in the medical aspects of it," they says of joining the ABC medical drama as Dr. Kai Bartley. "But the thing that really keeps them tied is this constant search. for connection that all of their characters are trying to achieve. Adding a non-binary storyline to that, getting to see a non binary person get to be part of this extremely flirty world, this compassionate world is really fun for me. I just think about me as a queer kid to watch this on screen. I cannot imagine what it would have done to my brain and what it would have done for my heart.”

ALSO:


E.R. Fightmaster's mom "freaked out" when they landed Grey's role (https://variety.com/2021/tv/features/greys-anatomy-er-fightmaster-representation-love-1235110009/): “I used to watch some of the episodes with my mom, (who) religiously watches the show,” says Fightmaster. “And it’s funny, because I have done other things, but when I told my mom about this, this is the first time she actually freaked out. Which, of course, made me feel very good. My relationship with show is through my mother and I think hearing her freak out was was the first time that I allowed myself to really think, ‘Oh, yeah, this is an institution.’”