Information about Izzie Stevens

Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens
First appearance	"A Hard Day's Night"
Created by	Shonda Rhimes
Portrayed by	Katherine Heigl
Information
Aliases	"Izzie," Dr. Model
Gender	Female
Age	27
Occupation	Surgical Resident at Seattle Grace Hospital
Title	M.D.
Spouse(s)	Dr. George O'Malley (one-night stand/ love interest) Denny Duquette, Jr. (fiancé; deceased) Dr. Alex Karev (ex-boyfriend) .
Children	Hannah Klein (daughter; given up for adoption)

Isobel "Izzie" Stevens is a fictional character on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy. The character is portrayed by actress Katherine Heigl. Katherine Heigl was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards. Furthermore, she was awarded Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series at the 2007 Emmy Awards.

Background

Izzie grew up in nearby Chehalis, Washington living in a trailer park with her mother, who nicknamed her "Cricket". Izzie worked as a waitress as a teenager and had savings for college, but her mother spent all of their money calling psychics, so Izzie ended up paying the vast majority of their bills with her own money. This caused their estranged relationship. When Izzie turned 18, she left home and never looked back. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter whom she subsequently gave up for adoption. Her daughter was adopted by a presumably upper-class family that once lived in Santa Barbara, but has since moved. The daughter was named Hannah by the adoption parents, but Izzie states that she named her Sarah for herself. Izzie donated bone marrow to save Hannah, who was suffering from leukemia. Izzie paid her way through medical school at University of Washington as an underwear model as fictional alias “Bethany Whisper”.

Overview

Izzie is kind and compassionate, often to the extent of getting too emotionally involved, and frequently goes out of her way to help her patients, disregarding rules and protocol if she needs to. This would later prove to be her downfall in season 2, when she fell in love with a heart patient Denny Duquette. Shortly after she accepted his marriage proposal, he died from a blood clot, leaving Izzie devastated and overwhelmed by grief. She then came to the conclusion that she tends to get emotionally involved with her patients but still wants to be a surgeon, and will strike an appropriate balance between the professional and the personal.

Izzie tends to speak her mind, especially about things that bother her. However, her timing is often inappropriate, leading people to take offense at what she says. Despite this, she is very protective of people that she loves, especially her best friend George.

Izzie seems to be a big fan of the holidays, taking it upon herself to make a Thanksgiving dinner for her friends as well as extensively decorating Meredith’s house for Christmas. Izzie is also an extremely competent baker and obsessive cleaner, once baking hundreds of muffins to get over the grief of losing her fiancé Denny Duquette. In anticipation of George’s grief over his recently deceased father, she has since baked many muffins and has also baked several other pastries including cobbler.

Character History

Friendly and eager, Izzie became fast friends with her fellow interns Dr. Meredith Grey, Dr. Cristina Yang and especially Dr. George O'Malley, whom she considered her best friend. Together with George, she managed to convince Meredith to let them stay at her mother’s house. Not long after, she realized George’s infatuation with Meredith and encouraged him to ask her out.

An ex-lingerie model, Izzie initially struggled with other people’s preconceived notions about her being an incompetent doctor. It was not long before Dr. Alex Karev found out about her modeling stint, and proceeded to put up copies of her lingerie advertisements in Seattle Grace to humiliate her. Izzie, furious, confronted Alex and reminded him that her modeling paid for all her student loans, while he was still deep in debt.

Despite this, she subsequently warmed to Alex when she saw through his aloof and callous exterior. She struck up a tentative friendship with him, to the shock of her fellow interns. Although she denied having any attraction for Alex, she accepted his offer for a dinner date in “Deny, Deny, Deny”. However, Alex had had a rough day prior to that date, and treated her coldly throughout, putting their budding relationship on the backburner. Their relationship was later rekindled when Alex gave her a long, passionate kiss in Joe’s bar.

Due to technical problems on Alex’s part, Izzie’s sexual relationship with him ran into some difficulties. She later caught him sleeping with nurse Olivia, and ended their relationship in “Much Too Much”. Izzie soon found out that her friends were helping Alex study for his failed boards, and blew up at them for helping him. Although she eventually forgave him, she ruled out all possibility of getting back together with him.

In “Begin the Begin”, she was introduced to a heart transplant patient Denny Duquette. Although he left the hospital after failing to get the heart, Izzie was charmed by Denny’s playful flirtation and sense of humor.

During a bomb scare in the hospital, Izzie realized she needed to do what she wanted to before it was too late. She accosted Alex and proceeded to have sex with him in a linen closet, and several times more over the course of the day. But when Denny was readmitted to Seattle Grace in “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” after suffering cardiac dysrhythmia, Izzie brushed Alex off for him. Alex was jealous of Izzie’s concern for Denny, and tried to get Denny to back off by telling him that there was a good chance that he would die from his failing heart anyway. She confronted him, and he replied saying that she cannot get involved with her patients. However, Izzie realized that she didn't have to settle for Alex and broke up with him.

After George had a disastrous sexual encounter with Meredith, he moved out of their house, to Izzie’s disappointment. She made repeated attempts to find out his new living arrangements, but he refused to tell her. However, he eventually moved back and frequently had his new girlfriend, Dr. Callie Torres, over. Izzie considered Callie a freak, and made it clear that she did not like Callie’s presence in his life. Her frequent snide remarks about Callie and George’s reluctance to take Izzie to task for it was a factor in the couple breaking up later on.

Denny underwent a surgery to get a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) installed, so that he would get a better chance of survival. When Izzie found out Denny lost out on a donor heart by a mere 17 seconds, she implored Denny to let her make his condition worsen so that he would move up the donor list. He initially refused as her medical career would be over, but relented after Izzie broke down begging him. She cut his LVAD wire, and sought the help of the interns to help prevent Denny from dying. Cristina informed Izzie that Denny’s surgeon, Dr. Preston Burke was shot and currently fighting for his life, Izzie panicked, completely at a loss. As the interns’ tensions rose while Denny lay dying, he proposed to a shocked Izzie in the midst of the mayhem.

Bailey walked in on the interns and banned them from all surgeries until someone admitted to cutting the LVAD wire, while Alex invited Dr. Erica Hahn to replace Burke for Denny’s heart transplant. Denny’s transplant was successful, and Izzie agreed to marry him when she visited him after his surgery. However, Denny suffered from a stroke and died shortly after, leaving Izzie devastated. Alex carried Izzie off Denny’s body, and told her that the body was no longer Denny, the man she loved. She subsequently admitted to cutting the LVAD wire, and announced that she was leaving the surgical internship program.

Izzie was wrecked with grief, and baked hundreds of muffins to distract herself. Alex managed to convince their resident Dr. Miranda Bailey to talk to Izzie, to stop her compulsive baking. Denny’s father later requested a meeting with Izzie in “What I Am”, and handed her an $8.7 million dollar inheritance check from Denny. To her friends’ shock, she decided not to cash in the check, and placed in on the refrigerator instead. She regarded the check as the last vestige of Denny, and was reluctant to part with it until something good could be done with the money.

After witnessing Cristina perform a running whip stitch in the OR, an inspired Izzie decided to return to the internship program. Bailey managed to convince the Chief to allow Izzie to return, but she was placed under strict probation, which prevented her from coming into direct contact with patients. She was however, dissatisfied with the limited medical work she was allowed to do, and frequently tried to push the boundaries of her probation. In a bid to be allowed back into the OR, Izzie deposited the check and used it to donate $300,000 for a sugery that a patient could not afford due to their insurance company refusing to pay. This was due to the surgery being too experimental. Baily was hoping that Izzie had donated the money so that she could scrub in on the surgery, but was disappointed to find that Izzie donated it out of compassion for the patient. Although this would normally be seen as good and acceptable, Bailey reprimanded Izzie for becoming overly involved with a patient yet again. Later, Izzie donated the rest of the money to fund Bailey’s free clinic – the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic.

During a ferry accident, Izzie managed to save a man’s life by drilling burr holes into his skull with an ordinary drill, causing an impressed Chief to take her off probation in “Drowning on Dry Land”.

Although Izzie had agreed to let George pursue his happiness with Callie, she was hardly supportive when George announced that he had married Callie in Las Vegas, mocking the size of Callie’s ring, and later telling George outright that he made a huge mistake getting married and declaring to Callie that the marriage was nothing but "a piece of paper." Her antagonism towards Callie drove a wedge between her and George. Izzie tried to apologize for her behavior, but George rebuffed her halfhearted attempt.

After Callie revealed to George that she was well-off, a hurt George told Meredith, who in turn told Izzie. Izzie used this to lash out at Callie, knowing that it would hit a nerve. Enraged at his indiscretion, Callie kicked George out of their hotel room after voicing her belief that Izzie "has feelings" for George. Depressed and confused, George went to Izzie's and Meredith's house with a bottle of bourbon. Izzie and George promptly got drunk, and slept together. The following day, Izzie learned that George did not remember their intimacy from the previous night. It wasn't until after having lunch with Callie and her father that George remembered what had happened. George confronted Izzie in a linen closet at Seattle Grace and after they nearly kissed, George stormed out in a surge of guilt. He later convinced Izzie, who wanted to tell Callie, that the incident must remain their secret.

While dealing with the aftermath of sleeping with George, Izzie was visited by the parents of the daughter she gave up for adoption. Hannah, 11 years old, was sick with leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant immediately. Izzie agreed to donate the bone marrow to save the daughter she never knew, causing her much emotional grief. Dr. Bailey helped Izzie keep Hannah a secret from the other interns, but George became worried when he saw Izzie crying, and went to find her. He stayed with her during the bone marrow harvest, putting all other emotions aside to help Izzie. Izzie later confided in George that she has a daughter, and confessed that she needs his friendship to survive. George, still conflicted with his feelings for Izzie and ashamed of betraying Callie, left Izzie crying in her recovery room. He returned moments later, however, realizing that Izzie needs help as a friend. George accompanied Izzie to see her daughter for the very first time, noting that Hannah has Izzie’s eyes and mouth.

Following which, Izzie and George tried to pretend that they were both fine, and continued doing things together as friends. An increasingly suspicious Callie begged Izzie to return George to her, prompting Izzie to guiltily withdraw from George. She and George realized that they could not just pretend that their sexual encounter did not happen, especially when their growing feelings for each other kept getting in the way. This led George to decide to transfer to Mercy West.

When George received notice that he had been accepted in Mercy West’s program, Izzie tried to convince him not to transfer. She explained to George that she had no romantic feelings whatsoever for him, which meant there was no reason for him to leave Seattle Grace. However, it was made clear to the audience that Izzie does indeed have romantic feelings for George, and was only lying so he wouldn’t leave. In the finale of the show's third season, Izzie admitted to being in love with George, who in turn, reacted strangely. But in the fourth season's premiere, he admitted he loved her too.

References

''' GREY'S ANATOMY   •  • [ e]
Characters
Interns: Lexie Grey • George O'Malley Residents: Meredith Grey • Cristina Yang • Izzie Stevens • Alex Karev • Miranda Bailey Chief Resident: Callie Torres Attendings: Mark Sloan • Derek Shepherd Chief of Surgery: Richard Webber Former Characters: Preston Burke • Addison Montgomery
Episodes
Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four
Music/Soundtrack
Chasing Cars • How to Save a Life • The Story • Ingrid Michaelson
Related content
Shonda Rhimes (creator) • Cast • Private Practice • Official Website