AJ Austin

## August Jeremiah Austin

**Dr. AJ Austin** is triple board cardiothoracic, general and trauma surgeon at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital. He is portrayed by Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

## Biography

Dr. AJ Austin is the new star cardiothoracic surgeon at Chastain, but his incredible gifts come with a price. He’s often volatile, dramatic, irreverent and even abusive, but is also kind-hearted and caring. Keeping his overwhelming talent on line while controlling his moods is a constant balancing act.

### Season One

#### Rude Awakenings and The Raptor

AJ is the new cardiothoracic surgeon at Chastain and Mina is tasked with showing him around, but she is caught off-guard by his volatile personality.

#### Total Eclipse of the Heart

AJ performs a successful surgery on Micah Stevens' aortic dissection, which was a complication of his heart transplant.

### Season Two

#### Stuck as Foretold

During an operation with Mina, Austin gets high due to nitrogen narcosis and Mina used this time to get more information on the woman he was meeting with earlier. She learns that her mentor has been looking into his birth parents. They are both prominent doctors, who chose their career over him a long time ago. His mother had gotten pregnant during med school and chose to give her son up for adoption. Austin seems okay with that truth, almost understanding the choice that was made.

## Relationships

### Romantic

#### Mina Okafor

In *A Wedding, A Funeral*, AJ breaks up with his girlfriend Andrea in order to get into a relationship with Mina.

In *After the Storm*, he keeps in contact with Mina after she leaves back to Nigeria through texts.

### Familial

#### Biological Family

In *Stuck as Foretold*, Austin reveals he has been looking into finding his birth family. They are both prominent doctors, who chose their career over him a long time ago. His mother had gotten pregnant during med school and chosen to give her son up for adoption. His parents are currently married with two other grown-up children.

### Friendships

#### Randolph Bell

AJ and Bell were not originally friends, upon his hiring, they disagreed on several occasions, Mina once told AJ that Bell might fire him on one occasion. In mid-season 2, after the death of Bradley Jenkins, which AJ was allegedly caused (though it was actually caused by a defective heart valve made by QuoVadis), Bell stuck up for him, even telling them to write "Heart failure" as Bradley's cause of death on his death certificate, though it is unknown whether AJ knows about what was written. Bell did occasionally show respect for AJ as a surgeon, on one occasion, he called him one of Chastain's best. In more recent seasons, Bell and AJ are shown to be closer and having somewhat of a friendship, with the two sometimes supporting each other with Bell even taking AJ out to the bar for drinks.

#### Conrad Hawkins

Though rarely seen talking to each other in the early seasons, in later seasons, AJ and Conrad are shown to be somewhat friends, with Conrad even comforting AJ over his mother's death in Season 5.

#### Kit Voss

Though often shown to argue in the early seasons, Kit and AJ have been shown to be friendly with each other in later seasons, though they still argue, it is often in a jokey manner.

#### Abe Benedict

Abe is AJ's mentor and though Abe isn't seen after season 2, they are shown to have a good relationship until AJ discovers the reason that Abe uses QuoVadis devices.

#### Billie Sutton

AJ and Billie have somewhat of a friendship, AJ was the second person Billie told about her rape (With the first being Nic), Billie also supported AJ through his mother's cancer.

#### Trevor Daniels

Trevor sees AJ as a mentor and throughout season 5, they are often seen to hang out.

### Professional

#### Devon Pravesh

Though rarely seen onscreen together, most of the time, Devon and AJ are shown to respect each other somewhat, though some of their conversations have had hostile reactions (such as the conversation in season 5 about whether AJ's mother was eligible for a clinical trial), in one episode, after a patient gives Devon the nickname "Haircut", AJ says that the trial will be done by "Dr. Haircut", clearly showing AJ and Devon do have a jokey side to their relationship.

## Notes and Trivia

* AJ is short for his name: August Jeremiah.
* He is also known by his nickname as "The Raptor".
* Austin's ID number is 221465.
* He is adopted.
* Malcolm-Jamal Warner who portrays AJ previously appeared alongside Michael Paul Chan who portrays AJ's adoptive father Yee in the television series *Major Crimes*.

## Gallery

Follow this link for the rest of the **AJ Austin** Gallery