Alex Karev

**Alex Karev** is a surgical fellow, specializing in pediatric surgery, at Seattle Grace Hospital. He started his job at the same day Troy Bolton did. He first seems like the cool stud in the new batch of interns. A fantastic basketball player, a playboy, good-looks; he's the ultimate "manly man." He is planning on going the distance no matter what it takes, and that includes hurting the people he cares most about.

In the beginning, Alex told everyone that his dream specialty was plastic surgery, but after he got to know the specialty closer, he discovered that it wasn't for him. He wanted to go into plastics because most of the time the patients there willingly chose their pain.

Afterwards, Alex discovered that he liked to work with infants and began to develop a keen interest in neonatal surgery.

Alex is a former wrestler at University of Iowa, and attended college on a wrestling scholarship.

Alex prides himself on his honesty, which often lacks tact and can verge on being crude, brutal, and insensitive. This contributes to his poor bedside manner. However, Alex does have a moral code and is the only doctor who tells the truth to patients who make bad decisions about their health, at the risk of offending patients and getting kicked out of surgical cases.

Alex is also the first intern to decide on his specialty -- plastic surgery. While it seemed at first that he chose that specialty due to "frat-boy" superficiality, the real reason was that plastic surgery patients “sign up for the pain they get”. He has unwittingly been drawn to obstetrics and gynecology and neonatal surgery, after having several bad experiences in plastics, under Mark Sloan. Alex seems to have some talent in OB/GYN after serving as Addison’s intern for a while.

Alex secured a position in the surgical residency program at Seattle Grace after graduating from medical school. Although first he was an intern of Jeremy, Alex was reassigned to a new resident Dr. Miranda Bailey, to the disdain of the other interns under her. His frequent sexist remarks and overt come-ons made him even more disliked by the interns, who proceeded to dub him “evil spawn”. He became even more hated when he hijacked an open-heart surgery that rightfully belonged to the other interns. After which, he proceeded to taunt a furious Meredith, who attacked him in retaliation, calling him a “frat boy bitch”.

## **Personality and Traits**

Despite the callous image he projects, Alex is particularly affected when he treats addicts and abused children because of his childhood background. Alex is rather cold, callous and brusque.

He hides his pain behind a mask of aggression and bad attitude. For a while, he pushed everyone away, but since going into meds, he's showed more of who he really is. Alex shows a different side of his personality, which shows him as sweet, caring, and compassionate.

## **Appearances**

* 2.01 - ***The Start of Something New***
* 2.02 - ***There's No Place Like Home***
* 2.03 - ***The End of the Beginning***
* 2.04 - ***Live Free Or Twi-Hard***
* 2.05 - ***The Betrayal***
* 2.06 - ***When There Was Me and You***
* 2.07 - ***Paranoia***
* 2.08 - ***Farewell, My Bunny***
* 2.09 - ***Lights, Camera, Action***
* 2.10 - ***Home Alone***
* 2.11 - ***Into the Woods***
* 2.12 - ***Black Swan***