Characters / The Good Doctor

Main Characters

San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital

In General

• Dr. Jerk: Melendez, Andrews, Jared and Morgan are initially this to Shaun, thinking he will never be good enough as a surgeon and wouldn't even last a week at this hospital. Andrews even pretends to support him, when in reality he just wants to have him ousted, by giving him more and more responsibilities so that he would screw up eventually. However, as time goes on, they slowly realize how they underestimaded Shaun and come to respect him.
• Everyone Has Standards: Some of the anti-Shaun hospital employees at some points stood up for him, which is personal growth on their part.
  • Melendez was naturally apalled that the parents of Liam, an autistic boy, were discriminating Shaun for having the same condition. He also threatened to have their surgery cancelled unless they allowed Shaun to perform it. Also, he defended Shaun from Brandon, the boyfriend of a patient named Avery, whom the latter had inadvertently endangered in a grocery store robbery, partially due to his inabilities to communicate. When Brandon won't quit attacking Shaun, Melendez goes as far as to give Brandon an ultimatum.
  • While Andrews was scheming against Shaun to have him booted out, he wasn't actually pleased to learn that Dr. Jackson Han, the new Chief of Surgery, had fired Shaun for demanding repeatedly to be reinstated as a surgeon. He was also against Shaun's medical license being revoked, as he did nothing wrong other than lying on a fetal position due to the quarantine's chaos being too much for him to handle.
• Firing Day: Happens to some of the characters, either because they deserved it, willingly chose to be, or were unfairly fired.
  • In Season 1, Jared is fired by Andrews for physically assaulting Dr. Matt Coyle, because he was sexually harassing Claire despite her rejecting him multiple times. However, Andrews refuses to rehire him even though he admired his ability to own up to his actions. Still, Jared doesn't sit down and sues the hospital for racism after learning that the white doctors were merely reprimanded. He wins the lawsuit and gets his job back, although this costs him the respect both Andrews and Melendez had for him. At the beginning of Season 2, he resigns and transfers to another hospital in Denver, but eventually comes back to St. Bonaventure as a first-year resident after he did not enjoy the experience.
  • In Season 2, Shaun and Andrews. First of, Shaun is transfered to Pathology by new chief Dr. Jackson Han due to his inabilities to properly communicate with the patients, despite Shaun being against it and his requests to be returned to Surgery are always turned down. This all comes to a heat when Shaun repeatedly yells "I AM A SURGEON!" to Han, who threatened to fire him unless he left his office. Shaun still persists, and Han stays true to his word and fires Shaun right on the spot. The next day, Andrews tries to change Han's decision, to no avail, as did Lim, Claire and Melendez in past episodes. During a meeting with the board, Han justifies firing Shaun by deeming him "irrational" and "unprofessional". In a surprising turn, Andrews, despite not having the votes to rehire Shaun, decides to fire Han, but Andrews is also fired for that, losing his president title. Shaun is back on business by the end of Season 2, while Lim, now chief of surgery, brings Andrews back as an attending surgeon.
  • In Season 4, resident Dr. Olivia Jackson, the niece of Dr. Andrews, is fired by Lim, who's been in a quite bad mood lately due to suffering postraumatic stress disorder from the COVID-19. She had accused Claire of being a whistleblower for leaking private information about a patient who lied about being a cancer survivor, and was ready to fire her once she had proof. Olivia falsely takes the blame, both to restore the strained friendship between Claire and Lim, but also because she never wanted to be a doctor in the first place. Andrews is revealed to be said whistleblower, but they both keep it a secret.
  • In Season 5, Salen Morrison buys and takes over the hospital. In light of the death of an infant and Salen's decision to cover up her mistake, Lim leads a mutiny against her, in which Glassman and Lea join her. When Salen finds out, not only does she unceremoniously fire all three of them, but also blackmails them into silence by threatening to release to the public some sensitive information she researched on them. Of course, after Andrews steps up and puts an end to the war, they are rehired.
  • In Season 6, Danica Powell is faced with this hard decision made by Lim. Her pattern of disobedience has become a problem for the hospital, and it ends up affecting her credibility when she is caught performing an unauthorized surgery on her friend Vince, who is on parole, at her home. Despite the consequences, Powell is not actually sorry for her actions, knowing that Vince is fine and it's all that matters. Asher, whom she dragged into this, is instead given a two-month probation.
• Good Doc, Bad Doc: Shaun, Claire, Glassman, Lim and Park certainly fit under the definition of good doc, putting both patients and morals first. Melendez, Andrews, and Jared seem more interested in themselves and making money.
• Hospital Hottie:
  • Park has some muscle to show off. In one episode, Morgan "pranks" him by hiding all the scrubs in his size, forcing him to wear smaller, tighter scrubs that show off his muscles.
  • Dr. Coyle, who appears only in Season 1, is a hit with some of the female doctors and nurses. When Claire is assigned to work with him on a case, he goes too far in making advances on her, and eventually gets transferred to a different department as a result.
  • Jerome, a male nurse who asks Asher out after working on a case together. Asher (and likely other staff) had no idea he was gay until this point. Asher himself is admired by many of the show's female and gay male fans as well.
  • Dr. Daniel Perez is admired by many of the female staff, especially Jordan. He even gets a slow-motion Shirtless Scene set to the overture from Romeo & Juliet.
• Token Good Teammate: Aside from Glassman, his friend Jessica, Claire (not counting her first bad impression), Lim, Park and Carly are the only staff members who are nice to Shaun and treat him decently.

Dr. Shaun Murphy

"The world is sad and very complicated. I wish it wasn't"

Played by: Freddie Highmore, Graham Verchere (young)

A young autistic doctor who joins the residency program at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital, but not without resistance. Whilst some doctors see him as having deficits, others see him as remarkably gifted.

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• Abusive Parents: Shaun's father was an alcoholic who physically and emotionally abused him, even killing his pet rabbit. Shaun's mother loved him and Steve, but was negligent, cowardly and too loyal to her husband to intervene on behalf of her abused children. She often stood by and did nothing during her husband's fits of rage.
• Adaptation Name Change: He is Dr. Ali Vefa in Mucize Doktor.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: In "Heartbreak", after drinking a few drinks at a bar, Shaun has the worst possible idea for how to deal with his rejection by Lea: smashing her car with a baseball bat. He gives up on the idea at the last minute, but unfortunately, he ends up meeting Lea and ends up saying unpleasant things to her.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Shaun has feelings for Lea, but she only sees him as a friend, more or less.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: A rare case where the person did not want (or expect) his love interest to hear. In "Hurt", while Shaun is rescuing a woman named Vera from a collapsing building, the two talk about their personal lives. Vera reveals that she was only at the place (a charity event) hoping to win back her ex-boyfriend. She insists that Shaun should move on from Lea. Shaun says he doesn't want to give up on Lea because she made him discover worldly pleasures that he never would have imagined and makes him feel like a better person. What Shaun doesn't know is that Lea is listening to everything he's saying from a connected walkie-talkie, and is moved to tears by his words (he had already confessed that he loved her, but not in those details).
• All Take and No Give: Played with. Initially, Carly complains that she has to work hard to make their relationship work, while he can't do something as simple as seeing her for more than 15 seconds. Eventually, he decides to make real efforts.
• Berserk Button: Shaun hates being pressured to do something he doesn't want to do.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Shaun is pure and friendly, but you definitely won't like to see what happens when you push all of his buttons.
  • In "Friends and Family", Shaun initially does not forgive his dying father, shouting that he deserves to die for all the abuse and trauma he put him through.
  • In "Heartbreak", Shaun acts like a Jerkass towards Claire and Melendez in the aftermath of Lea's rejection of him at the end of the previous episode. In the end, Shaun prepares to demolish Lea's car with a baseball bat, having watched the scorned girlfriend of a Patient of the Week do the same to her cheating boyfriend's car, when Lea shows up and asks what he's doing. He honestly states his intentions but can't go through with bashing up his friend's car, so instead, he drops the bat and tearfully blasts Lea with one hell of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech before storming off, leaving Lea in tears.
• Big Damn Kiss: Shaun and Lea end the finale of Season 3 by giving each other a passionate kiss, after three seasons of Will They or Won't They?, and allow the episode to end on a hopeful note after almost forty minutes of tragedy.
• Boy Next Door: Shaun is this from the point of view of his love interest, Lea.
• Broken Ace: A good person and a brilliant doctor who had a terrible childhood, courtesy of his abusive parents and the tragic death of his loving brother. During the quarantine, he suffers from major sensory overload and his visualization ability does not work correctly.
• Brutal Honesty: Shaun's idea of small talk over the operating table is "You're very arrogant... does it hurt you as a person?" Lim seems to see this as an occasional strength of his (depending on the situation).
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Shaun really struggles with lying, not telling the whole truth, or just not immediately volunteering his opinions. He learns how to lie by mentally charting out what is essentially a risk-benefit analysis, but his lack of emotional understanding still causes him to lie really awkwardly. One paranoid patient only wanted Shaun as his doctor on the sole basis of his inability to lie.
• Chick Magnet: For someone so shy, introverted, and No Social Skills, he manages to attract the attention of a decent amount of women: Lea, Carly, one nurse and radiology resident Dr. Cintia D'Souza. It comes down to his Nice Guy personality and being really awesome at his job as a doctor.
• Comically Missing the Point: In "Fixation", Shaun tries to convince Lea that he can change his behavior and that dating would work. For this, Shaun asks Lea to show up at his apartment in the middle of the day, to show that he doesn't care about cans out of alphabetical order and the position of the toilet paper. Lea is not at all impressed and makes Shaun realize the paradox of the situation.
• Covert Pervert: He pipes up that some porn pieces do have good stories when Jared wonders about it, plus he used to read porn magazines with his brother when he was younger. Jared's shocked, but as Claire points out, just because Shaun's autistic doesn't mean he lacks a sex drive. When he dates Carly in Season 3 and Lea from Season 4 onwards, he reveals a huge appetite for sex.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Played for Laughs. Shaun tells Lea about his crush on Dr. D'Souza, even when he dreamed of her. While Lea is somewhat surprised, she takes it well and Shaun becomes paranoid when Lea admits to having been attracted by other guys.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He suffered physical and emotional abuse from his father who couldn't understand his autistic mindset. In a fit of rage, he even killed Shaun's beloved pet rabbit while yelling at Shaun for not being "normal". His mother stood by and did nothing to defend her son, leaving Shaun and his younger brother Steve to run off in an attempt to better their lives. Steven was the only one who loved Shaun and took care of him, making it all the more tragic when he ended up dying in front of Shaun in an accident while playing hide and seek. He was eventually put into foster care and essentially left on his own. Shaun also recounts being made fun of by school kids for being different, occasionally being humiliated by bullies who only wanted to mock and tease him.
• Depending on the Writer: One of the first episodes of Season 1 states that Shaun does not answer when questions are asked directly to him. You can imagine how often this doesn't happen on the show.
• Does Not Like Spam: Shaun absolutely hates pickles. He will not eat anything that even touches pickles.
  • In Season 2 episode "Quarantine", the first thing Shaun says when he meets Lea after the quarantine is over is that all the sandwiches at the hospital had pickles. Lea immediately says that this is not a good thing.
  • In Season 4 episode "Irresponsible Salad Bar Practices", Lea tries to help Shaun get over a developing crush on a new resident by stalking her in the cafeteria and noticing that she loves pickles, and even uses the wrong salad bar tongs for them. Shaun is instantly disgusted and over her.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Despite not being as extreme as other examples, Shaun often seems to have that attitude towards Lea.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Shaun does not usually drink, but unfortunately he has a habit of doing so when he is in a desperate situation. He does this after being fired from the hospital at the end of Season 2 and after being rejected by Lea in Season 3. In both cases, it ends up causing Shaun to do stupid acts.
• Easily Forgiven: At the end of season 3, Lea doesn't seem to hold any kind of grudge against Shaun, despite the fact that he humiliated her and almost broke her car days before.
• Erotic Dream: Shaun has one with Dr. Cintia D'Souza, to whom he's attracted despite being in a relationship with Lea, when they watch the weather channel together and she starts kissing him.
• Extreme Doormat: Shaun really doesn't know how to stand up for himself. In a medical situation where his colleagues are professional and understanding of his circumstances, he can usually voice his opinions, but outside of that, especially when dealing with personal issues, he shrinks, walks away, and can even have a meltdown struggling to even comprehend his situation.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Even though he initially acts like he doesn't mind, he ends up admitting that he hates seeing Lea with other men.
• Handicapped Badass: Despite his autism, he tries to rush a security guard (twice!) to save a child's life. That takes balls anyway, and a lot of overcoming of social perceptions for Shaun.
• Hates Being Alone: Shaun is completely terrified that his autism and his personality will inevitably cause all the people he loves to abandon him.
• Hates Being Touched: One of the aspects of his autism is that he hates physical touches unless he's the one to initiate it. He also prefers to only touch one thing at a time.
• Humble Hero: Despite being a medical genius and saving several lives (either personally, or by suggesting a diagnosis and/or treatment that nobody else would have thought of), it never occurs to Shaun that he should take credit for his accomplishments. After Jared claims credit for one of Shaun's ideas, Shaun even asks Glassman why it matters.
• Innocently Insensitive: Shaun doesn't have any social filters, so he will loudly announce uncomfortable facts, like the telling a patient the likelihood of their death during a procedure, regardless of their mental or emotional state, because he believes that they should be informed.
• The Insomniac: When he first moved into his San Jose apartment, his Obsessively Organized tendencies made it difficult for him to sleep, first because of his new environment, then because of a dripping faucet. When the faucet got fixed, it aggravated him even more, because the faucet wasn't the thing that was keeping him awake, but rather the tempo of the drip that was different than the one in his home in Wyoming.
• Intergenerational Friendship: His best male friend is Dr. Glassman, although their relationship is also as a father and son.
• The Intern: Even though he's one of the most talented surgical residents, he's given all the scut by Melendez, probably as a double whammy: be mean to Shaun and keep him away from patients (Melendez believes he's too socially blind to do good work at all).
• Introverted Cat Person: Shaun likes cats. When he meets Lea at Season 1, there is a cat on the balcony of his apartment and she advises him not to feed him, otherwise the cat will never leave. Shaun feeds the cat anyway. In Season 2, Shaun tries to convince Lea to adopt a cat, but she is allergic.
• It Was a Gift: In Season 1, he receives a baseball as a gift from Lea when she moves to another city. She makes him promise that he will return it to her when she returns one day. Shaun immediately places the ball next to his photo with the late brother, which shows how important it is to him. In Season 2, when Lea returns, Shaun tries to return the ball, but she refuses saying it was a gift. In many moments of Season 2 and Season 3 it is possible to see that Shaun still keeps the ball in his room.
• Just Friends: Shaun and Lea decide to be just that in Season 2, mainly because they live together and don't want to ruin their wonderful friendship. This falls into ruins in Season 3, when a series of events force them to admit that they are in love with each other. At the end of Season 3, they finally become a couple.
• Kick the Dog: In "Heartbreak", Shaun venting his anger and frustration at Lea, even throwing in her face the fact that her professional and romantic life is a disaster, is the kind of horrible attitude we could expect from Gregory House, not Shaun Murphy.
• Lack of Empathy: Not in a psychopathic way; in fact, quite the contrary. Shaun's more concerned with saving lives, not protecting feelings, and has trouble understanding why it's even necessary to take the feelings of others into consideration. Jumping the gun and giving false hope, for example, is something he has no problem doing since it might save a life, regardless of how much more painful it would be for those involved and ultimately is.
• Like a Son to Me: Shaun is this to Glassman, which Jessica subtly points out to Glassman, implying that Glassman mentoring Shaun is his way of becoming the good father he wishes he had been to his own daughter Maddie, who tragically died.
• Manly Tears: A lot.
• Nice Guy: He may have zero skill in diplomacy, but he is genuinely, selflessly, immensely compassionate towards patients (whether they are his and not), and he tries to see the best in people.
• No Indoor Voice: He tends to speak very loudly about diagnoses and procedures, not realizing the necessity to modulate his volume when talking in front of patients.
• No Social Skills: He isn't completely lacking, but finds it hard to empathize, which is especially key in surgical social interactions.
• Obsessively Organized: He likes things to be done in a very particular way, and he rarely deviates from his routines, becoming very distressed if he experiences something too far out of his wheelhouse. It's also how he became a doctor: He read and memorized medical textbooks when he was a teenager and obsessively thinks about his cases.
• Odd Friendship: With his neighbor Lea. Her personality is the exact opposite of Shaun's personality, and yet (or perhaps just because of that) they are each other's best friends. And at the end of Season 3, they become a couple.
• Official Couple: With Lea at the finale of Season 3.
• Oh, Crap!: This is basically the expression on Shaun's face at the end of episode 4.11, when Lea reveals to him that she is pregnant.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It's pretty easy to figure when he's not just being awkward due to his autism and is genuinely feeling distressed. He'll start pacing, wringing his hands, and repeating himself, but the big indicator that he is about to or is having a meltdown is when he starts holding or smacking his head with his palm.
  • In "Heartbreak", Shaun is so depressed at being rejected by Lea that he acts like a complete asshole to his co-workers during the entire episode, including Claire, who was the first in the hospital to support him from the start. The situation is so bad that none other than Melendez is forced to give a What the Hell, Hero? speech to Shaun. Everything gets worse at the end of the episode, when Shaun ends up drinking too much and tries to break Lea's car with a baseball bat, only to give up at the last minute and make a brutal and bitter "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Lea, ruining any chance of reconciliation between the two.
• Out of Focus: In the episodes "Claire", "Lim" and 'Decrypt ", Shaun is clearly a secondary character, while other supporting characters are the protagonists of the episodes (respectively, Claire, Lim and Lea).
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Claire. with whom he has a very close friendship, without ever reaching the Ship tease. Played with Leia, They try to have this type of relationship during the second and most of the third season, but eventually the platonic part is abandoned for the end of the third.
• Resign in Protest: In "Yippee Ki-Ya Y", after he is continually ignored by Andrews against doing a risky surgery for a former pop star who wants her voice back, but she still survives despite temporarily flatlining, Shaun, fed up with Salen's unethical methods of running the hospital, announces to her and Andrews that he's no longer having any of it and quits to avoid making the same mistakes. However, Glassman and Lea convince Shaun to return, as he's nearing the end of his residency. Salen refuses to rehire him and orders Shaun out of the premises, but he uses the poster in which he is featured in his favor by warning Salen that removing someone like him on the spectrum would result in a big shitstorm of bad PR for Ethicure, leaving her with no choice but to relent.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Thanks Melendez for a snippy comment about him being a good hire, etc.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He may be Literal-Minded and obey all instructions given to him, but if he's stopped from giving his patients a treatment he thinks will work, he can be quite creative in getting around his orders.
• Self-Deprecation: Shaun knows he is an intelligent doctor, but when it comes to friendships and dating, he is harshly critical of himself as he knows he can't emotionally connect to others as easily as "normal" people.
• The Spock: When it comes to making decisions, Shaun only cares about facts that are relevant to medicine and keeping patients alive. Any risks, or how a decision may affect the patients' emotions or relationships are usually outside his concerns.
  • Spock Speak: Vocabulary-wise, Shaun has trouble with colloquialisms and isn't very emotive.
• Super-Senses: Part of Shaun's Disability Superpower is enhanced perception, like noticing a millisecond of altered heart activity that monitors didn't pick up. Also provides him with:
  • Hyper-Awareness: As seen at the airport, Shaun picks up on the sound of something and his eyes dart to it, flitting all around the airport as he is trying to look at everything.
  • Photographic Memory: Can seemingly recall every page of his medical textbooks by image, with his brain automatically conjuring the appropriate parts for the situation.
  • Vein-o-Vision: A variation — because he can visualize the veins so well and has almost microscopic enabled perception, he can map a patient's system and pick out the best vein/artery to use with just a glance.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: In the last episode of the third season, Shaun decides to give up on obtaining Lea's love, he ends up obtaining it anyway.
• Tastes Like Purple: He has synaesthesia, with the title of the first episode taken from his speech about why the board should let him remain at the hospital. "The day that the rain smelled like ice cream, my bunny went to Heaven in front of my eyes. The day that the copper pipes in the old building smelled like burnt food, my brother went to Heaven in front of my eyes."
• Terse Talker: Sometimes will only provide forceful assertions without explanation, speaking imperatively, then stopping as fast as he started.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He loves pancakes.
• Trauma Button: Due to his autism and troubled childhood, a lot of things can cause him distress, like flashing lights, knocking on doors, and an overload of sensory information. Initially, he can barely function, but with the right encouragement (like being given medical information) he can pull through.
• Troubled, but Cute: In addition to being autistic, Shaun is also an insecure person and knows how to be quite unpleasant when he wants to. This does not stop women like Lea and Carly from becoming interested in him.
• Twofer Token Minority: He has autism and is Caucasian (compared to the Ambiguously Brown-ness of all the other surgeons).
• The Un-Favourite: Of Melendez's residents.
  • He is, however, quite obviously Lim's favorite.
• Verbal Tic: He has a sing-song cadence when he speaks and uses inflections and meter that sound odd to many English speakers.
• You Are What You Hate: In "Heartbreak", Shaun ends up drinking too much and humiliates Lea in a cruel way that unfortunately resembles his drunken, asshole father.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In "Hurt", Shaun risks his life entering the basement of a building ruined by an earthquake, hoping to save Lea, who is missing. During the journey, he has an imaginary conversation with his late brother Steve, who scolds him for risking his life in a pathetic and desperate attempt to win the love of Lea.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Lea in the first three seasons. In the finale of Season 3, they finally become a couple.

Dr. Neil Melendez

Played by: Nicholas Gonzalez

An attending surgeon at St. Bonaventure. He gets his ego bruised early on when Shaun spots a medical detail he doesn't and saves the patient's life.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Melendez is arrogant, selfish, uptight, and a control freak, but most of the time he's passive-aggresive. In the Turkish adaptation, his equivalent Ferman is much more hot-tempered and prone to shouting at Ali everytime he makes him lose his patience. But like Melendez, he still stands out as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He even starts growing closer to Ali, whom his late brother reminds him of.
• Adaptation Name Change: He is Dr. Ferman Eryiğit in Mucize Doktor.
• Anyone Can Die: He dies at the end of season 3, from injuries sustained in an earthquake.
• Character Development: Initially, he bluntly says Shaun doesn't belong at the hospital and wants him gone. However, he grows to respect Shaun's capability as a doctor and admits to being wrong about him.
  • Overcomes his initial bias against Shaun for being autistic and comes around to (at the very least) respecting Shaun's judgment as a gifted individual, and even wanting his input (e.g. in "Intangibles") once Shaun proves himself.
  • Defends Shaun's capacity to properly treat his comatose gunshot wound patient against the objections of the patient's date.
  • Is a completely different person by the time of season 3. The antagonism towards Shaun, the pettiness, the egotism? All gone.
• Chick Magnet: Jessica, Lim and eventually Claire were all attracted to Melendez.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Melendez stays alone after his breakups with Jessica and Lim. Even in season 3 he is not that lucky when he dies right after he and Claire tearfully admit their feelings for each other.
• Dr. Jerk: His initial role as the antagonist. He's very good, but is full of himself. Not only is he not very friendly, but he's also deliberately mean.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Claire confesses to Melendez that she loves him when he is about to die at the end of Season 3. Melendez also says that he loves her.
• Evil Is Petty: His pettiness knows no bounds, going out of his way to give unpleasant work to people who do things he doesn't like, even if these actions have no effect on him and the person is warm towards him — like with Claire just for being friendly to Shaun.
• Failed a Spot Check: He can't work out what background condition could be making a patient's BP very gradually drop, even though there was glass in his body and it wouldn't be ridiculous for some to be stuck near the heart. Shaun picks up on a tiny arrhythmia that lets Claire reach this conclusion.
• Jerkass: Tries to argue with Shaun about being five minutes late because his bus was running late, which is a pedantic argument in the first place and seems to just be an excuse to pick on Shaun. He really becomes a jerk when he phrases it like Shaun being late is killing patients, and using language attacking his autism, clearly wanting to hurt him. However...
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He seems to be getting better. By episode 6, he seems to be taking Shaun's opinions VERY seriously and saying he has good ideas. Although this could just be recognizing genuine talent after finally coming to trust him, rather than being a Nice Guy underneath, he still doesn't play nice and may still have jerk tendencies.
  • In Episode 8, he sticks up for Shaun when the date of a gunshot victim who was shot partly because of Shaun's reaction to the gunman objects to him treating her, saying, "And you don't know him like I do." And, unlike an earlier episode, this time around he wasn't under pressure from Glassman to defend Shaun against the prejudice of the victim's relatives/friends. He did it on his own accord.
    • Although Melendez still did this only when Shaun wasn't in the room to hear him defend him.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Habitually being late to work is frowned on in most professions, and most professions don't have people's lives on the line.
  • He's not wrong about it being irresponsible to give false hope to people by saying that the chronic health conditions in their loved ones can be cured before all the proper tests have been completed and evaluated.
• Pet the Dog: When Shaun realizes that he was wrong about why his gunshot wound patient's blood pressure was dropping and admits that Kalu was right, Melendez doesn't rub it in and simply says that what matters is that Shaun did (eventually) figure out the right answer and revised his recommended treatment.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He may be curt and bluntly dismissive, but when someone (usually Shaun) suggests an out-of-the-box or difficult solution to a seemingly impossible-to-solve problem, he usually lets them make their case and is willing to try it if there are no viable alternatives.
• Spared by the Adaptation: His Turkish equivalent survives throughout the series' run.

Dr. Claire Browne

Played by: Antonia Thomas

A surgical resident of St. Bonaventure. She quickly forms a close friendship with Shaun and vouches for him frequently.

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• Aborted Arc: After being sexually harassed by Dr. Coyle, Claire vowed to ruin his career by tracking down former female colleagues of his to find out which other women he's harassed. At the end of "Seven Reasons", she meets another woman who confesses to having also been harassed by Dr. Coyle. It's implied that the women are going to work together to expose his behavior. This plot is never mentioned in any subsequent episodes.
• Adaptation Name Change: She is Dr. Nazli Gülengül in Mucize Doktor.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Season 3 episode "Claire" focuses on her from beginning to end, showing her personal life and a day in the hospital daily from her point of view. Shaun is a mere minor character in the plot of the episode.
• The Bus Came Back: Briefly returns towards the end of season 5 to support Shaun and Lea's wedding, as well as seeking the team's help with one her patients from Guatemala, before returning to accept the position of Chief of Surgery at the Guatemala Hospital.
• Decomposite Character: From Dr. Chan in the Korean version. She is basically an adaptation of the character, but with the role of neighbor, best friend, and love interest given to Lea.
• Deuteragonist: It can be argued that she is this in the first four seasons, since Claire is the only character besides Shaun who appeared in all the episodes of the show so far, has a lot of screentime and is also one of the few characters who had an A Day in the Limelight episode exclusively focused on her and in which Shaun clearly played a secondary role. However, Claire ends up losing that title after her departure at the end of Season 4.
• Friends with Benefits: With Kalu in Season 1.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Her face says it all when she learns that she accidentally killed a patient in "Not Fake."
• Nice Girl: She is perpetually friendly and well-mannered to everyone; she is initially rude to Shaun when he shows up, but as a child's life was in danger and she was under stress, it's an understandable exception. Later on, she puts more effort in getting to know and understand him, and stands up for him frequently to Melendez and Kalu.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: As Shaun pursued a relationship with Carly, Claire points out how he asks very personal and deep questions that may put Carly off; suggesting he stick to casual conversation. It turns out that Carly actually liked Shaun's deep questions as she found such personal conversation to be refreshing (even saying that small talk "bored the hell out of her"). She bluntly orders Claire to butt out of their relationship.
• The Not-Love Interest: She is the Deuteragonist and one of the female characters to have a closer relationship with Shaun (probably only surpassed by Lea), but their relationship does not go beyond a simple friendship.
• Number Two: She's Melendez's favorite resident, and he doesn't mind showing it. He also doesn't mind showing when her standing in his estimation fluctuates.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of Season 4, Claire decides to accept a surgical position at a rural hospital in Guatemala in need of her assistance.
• Ship Tease: With Melendez in Season 3. They confess their feelings to each other at the end of season 3, but by then it's too late. Melendez has sustained fatal injuries in an earthquake and passes away soon after.
• Stepford Smiler: Claire's reaction to making a mistake that kills a patient is to smile, coop it up, and pretend it never happened. This explicitly worries Glassman, who recommends her to a therapist, who then tells her that it's very unhealthy behavior.

Dr. Jared Kalu

Played by: Chuku Modu

A surgical resident from a wealthy family. He doesn't seem to get in anybody's way, but will do anything to be the most successful surgeon... even if it's unethical.

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• Adaptation Name Change: He is Dr. Demir Aldirmaz in Mucize Doktor.
• Almost Kiss: With Jordan, but immediately stop after they are seen by a jealous Danny.
• Betty and Veronica: Played with. Danny has the position of a Betty (being a good-looking Nice Guy, but his drug addiction history (and relapse) make him a Veronica. Jared, on the other hand, has the position of a Veronica (an egotistical know-it-all Non-Idle Rich doctor), but his genuine Character Development post-Season 1 places him as a Betty.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He appears unassuming, but he can and will take advantage of others if they let him.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns in Season 6 on a recurring basis, to seek Shaun's help with his wealthy client. Later, after some encouragement from him, Jared, on Dr. Lim's approval, becomes once again a first-year resident on Shaun's team.
• Character Development: Like Melendez, Jared becomes a good friend of Shaun's and even offers to take the fall for a mistake Shaun made.
• Friends with Benefits: With Claire.
• Jerkass: He isn't outwardly jerkish, but he does a lot of unsavory stuff, like stealing credit for a treatment option that Shaun came up with.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Claire confronts him over stealing Shaun's idea, Jared asks her why she didn't immediately tell Melendez.
  Jared: Is that fair? My idea if it fails, but Shaun's if it succeeds?
• Lonely Rich Kid: His childhood.
• Nice Guy: To his patients, even when they lash out at him for trying to treat them. He probably has the best bedside manner of all the doctor characters and he genuinely cares about his patient's welfare.
• Non-Idle Rich: Kalu didn't have to expend the effort to become a doctor given that he is technically already rich from his family's wealth. He says to one of his patients that he did it to become his own man and make something of himself. It's clear that money (whether having a shortage of it, or a surplus of it) is not what motivated him to become a doctor.
• Parental Abandonment: When Kalu came home from boarding school, he found that his parents had moved house when a stranger answered the door to the family home.
• Put on a Bus: Moves to Denver at the beginning of Season 2.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He gets his burn victim patient into an experimental trial program being conducted at another hospital in San Diego, that treats burns with grafts of tilapia skin in order to improve the healing process and reduce scarring, by making a generous donation to said hospital from his own family's foundation.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Jared tells Jordan that he is not okay with her having disrespected Perez's wishes not to give him fentanyl after his car accident, which had caused him to leave the hospital.

Jessica Preston

Played by: Beau Garrett

The hospital in-house attorney and Vice President of Risk Management. She is the granddaughter of the hospital founder and a friend of Dr. Glassman.

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• Adaptation Name Change: She is Beliz Boysal in Mucize Doktor.
• The Bus Came Back: She returns briefly in Season 4 premiere after being absent of Seasons 2 and 3.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She breaks up with Melendez because she doesn't want children but he does. Although he insists there is no problem with them not having children, she still knows that he will regret it in the future.
• Put on a Bus: She leaves the show after the finale of Season 1.

Dr. Marcus Andrews

Played by: Hill Harper

The Chief of Surgery at St. Jose St. Bonaventure. He becomes the President in Season 2 after Glassman steps down. After being fired as hospital president, he accepts an offer to return as attending surgeon in Season 3. He becomes the president once again in Season 5 following the hospital's disassociation with Ethicure, before resigning at the end of Season 6, with Glassman and Lim being appointed as interim co-presidents at the beginning of Season 7.

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• Aborted Arc: A couple of Season 1 episodes have subplots featuring Andrews and his wife visiting specialists to overcome fertility issues so they can have a child. The situation is never mentioned in later seasons and Andrews has made no mention of having any children since then, suggesting that either they were unsuccessful or that their plans for having children were put on hold once Andrews was promoted to President of the hospital.
• The Ace: Is the chief surgeon of the hospital and a very good plastic surgeon.
• Adaptation Name Change: He is Dr. Tanju Korman in Mucize Doktor.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the 2019 Turkish adaptation, he is much more arrogant, self-centered and malicious, mistreats his employees for his own amusement on a daily basis, and doesn't give a damn about their problems. The viewers hate him with all their souls.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pretends to support Shaun, but only in order to give him more responsibility in the hope that he messes up.
• Break the Haughty: Goes through a mild case of this in Season 2. He dangles his old position of Chief of Surgery in front of Melendez and Lim only to then keep it for himself, only to later be forced to relinquish it to Han after the quarantine. In the Season 2 finale, he clearly sets aside his ego as he recalls Steve's long-ago words and, along with Glassman, sticks up for Shaun, a man he was initially opposed to.
• Character Development: Like Melendez, he grows out of his jerkass behaviour and becomes a much better person.
• Dr. Jerk: Initially goes out of his way to push Shaun into a position of responsibility for the sole purpose of making it more noticeable when he messes up and overreacts to Claire following his instructions to be more assertive.
• Hero Antagonist: His role in Season 1. And how.
• Hypocrite: Tells Claire to be more assertive, then overreacts when she speaks out against his work hours policy, even though she did it in a calm and respectful way.
• Irrational Hatred: In Season 6, it's clear he still hates Jared, mistrusts him and doesn't even want him at the hospital after restarting his residency despite the fact that their previous conflict over the racism lawsuit it's no longer relevant as it's been four years since it happened, much to Lim's dismay, especially as both of them clash during a case assigned to Jordan, Perez, Asher and Jared (referring to Perez and Asher as the "two on probation" and Jared, Powell's replacement, as "someone that I fired"), to the point of even questioning their competence in dealing with the patient. After the surgery proves to be a success, he admits that "things were said that shouldn't have been", probably implying how wrong he was to misjudge Jared and the others.
• It's All About Me: In Season 2, he implies to Melendez and Lim that he's going to pick one of them to be the new Chief of Surgery, then he decides to keep the position for himself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a jerk mostly towards Shaun and Glassman, but is kind to his patients and genuinely cares about them. The "heart of gold" part becomes more apparent as time goes on, before coming out full-force in the Season 2 finale when he fires Han for wrongly firing Shaun.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Keeping the Chief of Surgery position for himself comes back to bite him after the quarantine when he's clearly forced to relinquish it to Dr. Jackson Han.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: He and his wife have trouble conceiving due to his low sperm count.
• Pet the Dog: He gets a few moments of this with Shaun, the biggest examples being when he tells Shaun in the Season 2 premiere that he (Shaun) exceeded his expectations of him and in the Season 2 finale when he sticks up for Shaun against Han.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of Season 6, Andrews decides to resign his president title after the board has called for a meeting over his questionable decisions, while also being in a relationship with nurse Villanueva, to spare himself the severity of getting fired once again. He was mentioned in Season 7 to be touring the world. This also has to do with Hill Harper's Senate campaign.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He seems to be better after becoming president, telling Shaun to communicate better, Claire to be more assertive, and Morgan to be more of a team player.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Usually wears a nice suit when he's not operating.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He takes the big first step on it in the Season 2 finale when he bats for Shaun to be rehired by firing Dr. Jackson Han, although the decision ended up costing him his job and reputation as well. By Season 3, he's no longer mean and doubtful towards Shaun, coming to fully accept him as part of the hospital. However, this is briefly deconstructed in the first episodes of Season 5 with the arrival of Salen Morrison, who buys the hospital and dates Andrews, whose egotistical attitude resurfaces, having forgotten that not everything it's always about him, making a bunch of viewers questioning whether his Character Development was actually genuine. In Season 6, by the time Jared restarts his residency, Andrews practically still resents and mistrusts him over their previous conflict in which Jared got fired for assaulting the doctor that harassed Claire back in Season 1, then got the job back after he won a lawsuit against the hospital for racism, but Andrews simply won't let it go. He grows out of it, though.

Dr. Aaron Glassman

Played by: Richard Schiff

The former President of St. Bonaventure who brings Shaun in to be a surgical resident there. He has known and mentored Shaun since he was 14, helping him find a stable life and purpose.

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• The Ace: He can insert a syringe into a man's chest, by feel, without imaging, and not puncture the heart. But his real specialty is brain surgery. While the assisting doctors and nurses are standing around sweating bullets, he treats extremely dangerous operations like he's going for an afternoon stroll.
• Adaptation Name Change: He is Dr. Adil Erinç in Mucize Doktor.
• Casting Gag: His backstory — he was a neglectful father due to being a workaholic in a field of science and his daughter died in the teens after using drugs — is almost identical to his role in an episode on Bones.
• Dead Person Conversation: After his brain surgery, he begins seeing and speaking to his dead daughter.
• Embarrassing Nickname: During high school, when people would make nicknames based on the first letter of their first name and anything close to their last name, he got stuck with the reverse, giving him the nickname "Glaaron Assman."
• Good Is Not Soft: According to Aoki, he is never a pushover and will always fight to get his way.
• Hypocrite: In "Shrapnel", he has the gall to accuse Shaun of isolating himself, even though Glassman is the one purposefully avoiding Shaun and sides with Lim blaming Shaun for her surgery's negative outcome and he simply wanted a comfortable office space as to not be distracted by things triggering his outbursts.
• The Mentor: To Shaun. Unusual in that this relationship was established prior to Shaun starting work.
• Nice Guy: Glassman is generally a kind and sweet man, though he does have his limits.
• Papa Wolf: He's very protective of Shaun's feelings and well-being.
• Parental Substitute: To Shaun. Jessica even implies this.
• Pride: His Fatal Flaw. He never wants to appear weak, to the point that he pushes others away after his surgery.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Lea in "Quarantine Part Two".
  Glassman: You whisk him away on a road trip, kiss him, and then leave town. Now you pop back into his life, move in with him. Shaun's not some hamster you get to play with and then not think twice about it when you forget to feed him. You're gonna hurt him again. You know that.

Allegra Aoki

Played by: Tamlyn Tomita

The Chairwoman of the San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital Board and Vice President of the foundation that controls the hospital's funding.

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• Adaptation Name Change: She is Kıvılcım Boysal in Mucize Doktor.
• Adaptational Villainy: Unlike Aoki, her equivalent from the Turkish adaptation was also as villainous as the Chief of Surgery.
• Alas, Poor Villain: The Turkish counterpart may have been unpleasant to watch, but her death was the last thing she ever deserved. Even the characters were genuinely sad about it and mourned her.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She never appears again after the first episode of Season 3.
• Death by Adaptation: Her counterpart from the Turkish adaptation was killed in a fire explosion.

Dr. Alex Park

Played by Will Yun Lee

A surgical resident and a former police officer from Phoenix, Arizona who decided to become a doctor. He is often cynical and can tell when people are lying.

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• Awesomeness by Analysis: Less in a medical sense, but he's quick to notice when a patient is lying and can paint a pretty accurate picture about their past and behaviors based on subtle clues. Hell, he could read Shaun when they first met, something his other colleagues had difficulty doing even after working with him for a few months.
• Chekhov's Skill: His experience as a cop is sometimes useful, such as when he immediately noticed that a patient's ID was fake.
• Luxurious Liquor: He prefers to bet with expensive booze instead of money.
• Manipulative Bastard: It's never for his own personal benefit, but Park is not above lying to or intimidating a patient into doing what he believes to be best. He's really good at it too, as shown by his 'Be reasonable' Good Cop/Bad Cop routine with Jared.
• Men Don't Cry: According to Park, his father had a mantra of "be like stone, never cry" whenever he was emotional as a child. Unfortunately, this led him to develop an emotional wall that pushed his loved ones away who only want to connect with him. This eventually drove his wife away and made him move away instead of staying to fix the problem. Park admits this is a flaw to his son and he eventually begins to take steps to work on it.
• Papa Wolf: He steals a stun stick from a security guard and breaks into the quarantine area to save his son, who is having an asthma attack.
• Parents as People: Park cares a lot about his son but admits that he wasn't a good father or husband and he didn't fight hard enough to be with them. While he does better in season 3, it becomes clear that his workaholic tendencies mean he can't connect fully with his son. After being emotionally haunted by a patient who died before he could reconnect with his father, which was his last request before dying, Park decides to move back to Phoenix to be with his family.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Park lays a very piercing one into both Andrews and Morgan, the only ones who have both stuck up for Salen from the very first day she took over the hospital, even after she indirectly killed a baby due to expired medicine and then wrongly fired Glassman, Lea and Lim when they attempted to spark a mutiny against Salen. While the two deserved it for overlooking the matter, it later wisens them up.
  Park: You think you're being realistic? You're being complicit. (...) Don't you see how being her apologists is corrupting you?
  Andrews: Dr. Park...
  Park: You took a woman's vision away to get your hands on the clinic!
  Morgan: Not. Fair.
  Park: And you stand by her after she kills a child!
• Resign in Protest: Like Shaun, Park also considers quitting from St. Bonaventure, not only because of Salen's ways of running the hospital and most of his colleagues were unfairly fired, but also because he chews out both Andrews and Morgan for still being Salen apologists after the dead baby incident. In the end, he doesn't after the Ethicure acquisition is called off.
• Seen It All: He was a cop for 15 years, so he's very familiar with how people, criminal or not, think and behave.
• Taking the Heat: In Season 3 episode "Unsaid", Park confesses that he reported to Lim about Melendez's favoritism for Claire. However, it is revealed that it was actually Morgan who reported it; Park lied to stop Clair from investigating further. He believed that their main concern should be with their patients.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Park has a pretty bad case of this in his backstory. Part of the reason that his wife divorced him was that he changed careers without telling her and spent more time training to become a doctor than being with his family. Park admits to his son during the quarantine that he didn't try hard enough to be with him or his mother and he wasn't a good person. After helping a boy around his son's age die happy by pretending to be his father, Park decides to move back to Phoenix to reconnect with his family.
• Younger Mentor, Older Disciple: He is older than Melendez, his superior. This gets lampshaded early on.

Dr. Morgan Reznick

Played By: Fiona Gubelmann

A competitive and self-centered surgical resident. She has a subtle rivalry with Claire as they have opposite personalities and work ethics.

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• Adaptation Name Change: She is nurse Açelya Dingin in Mucize Doktor.
• Black Sheep: She's the odd one out in her family, who are all famous artists, due to choosing to have a non-creative career.
• Break the Haughty: Season 2 has a long string of such incidents against Morgan; from her ignoring Shaun's insistence to amputate a patient's finger results in the loss of the entire arm, to a man she had a romantic connection with dying from infectious disease... likely as karmic punishment for her arrogance in the previous season.
• Brutal Honesty: She never sugar-coats her opinions. Due to her arrogance almost always coming through when she does so, it makes her sound like a jerk to both patients and her colleagues.
• Career-Ending Injury: In Season 3, Morgan develops rheumatoid arthritis that causes her severe hand pain. While she tries taking various prescriptions to dull the pain, it gets worse and the possibility she may be forced to retire from surgery becomes increasingly likely. Near the end of the season, Morgan decides to have a synovectomy done on her hands so she can still have ten good years as a surgeon. She's also hopeful there may be further options for her by that time period. However, during the earthquake, she's forced to perform emergency surgery to save a patient's life. However, this stress on her still recovering hands does permanent damage to her joints and Andrews tells Morgan she may have prematurely ended her career.
• Competition Freak: Part of why she was disliked by the other doctors was due to her competitive personality combined with extreme arrogance. She began to lose this as time went on.
• A Day in the Limelight: Season 3 episode "Sex and Death" focuses a lot on Morgan's relationship with her family.
• Deadpan Snarker: She is constantly sarcastic and ironic with her co-workers, especially Shaun and Claire.
• Dr. Jerk: She is this initially, but her co-workers and patients start to make her (a little) more gentle.
• Foil: To Claire. They're both ambitious female surgeons trying to make it in a tough career field. However, Claire is kind, compassionate, and is a good friend to Shaun. Morgan is rude, selfish, and frequently bullies Shaun.
• Freudian Excuse: Her rude and arrogant demeanor is likely caused by her mother never treating her like she was good enough.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: No one in the hospital makes a point of hiding that they consider Morgan to be an unpleasant person, although Morgan doesn't care too much and feels the same way about her co-workers. Even Lea, with whom she has exchanged only half a dozen words in her entire life, hates Morgan because of the way she treats Shaun and because Morgan constantly tries to separate the two. The situation improves a little in Seasons 2 and 3, with Claire becoming friends with Morgan, and Shaun getting used to her personality.
• Hate at First Sight: To no one's surprise, Lea and Morgan barely exchange a few words and already hate each other.
• Hated by All: By the first season finale, she's hated by the entire main cast for her attitude. Worth mentioning that she's fully aware of it and doesn't give a damn. That is until Melendez calls her out on it and knocks her down a few pegs in the first season finale.
• Hypocrite: One of her distinctive traits is her competitiveness. Everyone knows she can't live without proving her superiority as a surgeon and as a worker. But when she speaks about her family, she claims that she left them because she couldn't stand the competitive environment she lived in anymore, especially with an alleged eternal contest against her brother, Ariel, about who was more successful in life. Park is quick to point out how the very first thing Morgan did when she arrived at St. Bonaventure was to escalate the competitiveness of the surgical program. After Ariel also says how he's tired of her comparing her success to his, it becomes clear that Morgan blaming her family for her behavior is, for the most part, an excuse.
• Idiot Ball: In "Stories", she makes a bet with Park, the prize for whoever wins is a liquor of their choosing. Morgan, apparently believing that there's no way she'll lose, doesn't look up how much Park's prize is worth before accepting the bet. Turns out it costs $500, which she only discovered after it looked like she lost. Luckily for her, the bet ends in a tie.
• Jerkass: Seems to insist on going out of her way to make those around her upset and is despised by the rest of the main cast.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Morgan rarely sugar-coats her words and can be a major ass to her peers, some of her advice actually is useful.
  • In "Heartfelt", she points out to Shaun, with regards to the hospital's gala, that everyone is uncomfortable with sucking up to people but it's a necessary part of the job and using his autism as a crutch not to do something uncomfortable is just an excuse.
  • In "Fractured", Morgan tries to convince Shaun not to end his relationship with Carly, and cruelly insults Lea (a person she only met once), stating that she is a complicated person who is complicating Shaun's life. Shaun tries to defend Lea at first, but listens to most of Morgan's speech silently and reflects.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: By season 3, she ultimately earns this title. Despite all her flaws, she's shown to genuinely care about her patients, love her jerkass mother, and consider Claire and Shaun to be her friends.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Whenever it looks like she is going to have a redeeming characteristic, it is subverted.
• Kick the Dog: While Morgan is rather subtle and condescending in bullying Shaun, however, her Turkish counterpart Acelya cruelly tells Ali that he would never belong at the hospital and that they would never be friends. Her comment triggers one of Ali's outbursts as a result. Acelya later regrets what she said and sincerely apologizes to Ali.
• Lack of Empathy: Averted. Morgan is selfish, competitive, and unpleasant, but she usually cares a lot about her patients, which prevents her from being a complete asshole. She clearly feels guilty when she fails with some patients.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • She feels immense guilt after her reluctance to amputate a patient's finger at Shaun's insistence results in the patient losing her whole arm. The reason she didn't want to amputate the patient's finger was that the girl was a passionate musician and losing her finger would mean possibly being forced to give up her music career. As the girl breaks down in tears over losing her arm, she chews Morgan out for not listening to Shaun. The girl's anger and heartbreak send Morgan into tears herself.
  • In the case of her Turkish equivalent Açelya, after she cruelly told Ali they weren't friends (and neither were Nazli or the others with him). When Nazli informs Açelya about Ali's meltdown, she is mildy shocked at this but she doesn't admit to having caused it. The next day, she asks Nazli how Ali is doing out of concern. Later on, when Ali finds Açelya crying alone, she genuinely apologizes for her hurtful words, explaining that she took her anger out on him and takes back what she said about them not being friends. Açelya also says that while she can be "awful" sometimes, she is not really a mean person and doesn't wish to be one. Ali accepts her apology. She actually tried to apologize the first time when Ali dropped by looking for Nazli, who interrupted them before she could continue.
• Parental Neglect: Her mother was so consumed by her work as a painter that she often neglected Morgan as a child.
• Pet the Dog: In "Pain", she helps Kalu apply for a residency in another hospital.
• The Rival: Quickly sets herself up as Claire's main rival once she becomes one of Melendez's resident's reasoning (not inaccurately) that since Shaun is likely safe from being kicked out of the program, and Jared is the Black Sheep after what he did to get his job back, any victory she scores is one against Morgan.
• Shipper on Deck: Becomes one for Shaun and Carly during season 3 even telling him that he should stay with her after Shaun's feelings for Lea become prominent again.
• Sleeps in the Nude: One episode had Park barging into her room in the morning to find out her sleeping naked under a Modesty Bedsheet.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Played with. She's certainly not unsuccessful in life, but she still feels inferior to her siblings due to them being famous artists like her mother. A mother who considers her something of a disappointment since she chose a career that doesn't involve traditional creativity like music or painting.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Actually she receives two:
  • During the first season's finale, she receives one after Shaun makes a mistake during surgery that only avoids killing the patient because the team finds a solution. While the team shows sympathy for Shaun (given he was distracted due to learning Dr. Glassman has potentially terminal cancer), Morgan doesn't and believes they should report him, disagreeing with the team covering for him. Melendez warns her that her unwillingness to do teamwork may come at the price of her career one day.
  Melendez: At some point in your career, you're going to kill someone. And I hope for your sake there's a doctor out there who still believes in you when you do.
  • After finding out that Shaun and Carly are dating, Morgan inquires the latter whether she only dates the former out of a supposed martyr complex or not. However, Carly points out how she likes Shaun for who he is. She plainly says that the reason Morgan needs to know why someone would enjoy Shaun's company is that she's the one who doesn't see him as a human being able to be loved.
  Carly: ...the condescending notion that someone needs an ulterior motive to be interested in him means you're the one who isn't seeing him as a person.

Dr. Audrey Lim

Played by: Christina Chang

An attending trauma surgeon in charge of the ER and surgical residents and later the Chief of Surgery.

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• The Ace: Lim is one of the few doctors on the show that can rival Melendez with him in one episode drawing comparisons between her and Shaun in their ability to win cases. Come the end of season 2 she is the one who is chosen to become Chief of Surgery.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Season 4 episode "Lim" focuses on her from beginning to end, showing her personal life and a day in the hospital daily from her point of view. Shaun is a mere minor character in the plot of the episode.
• Dude Magnet: Melendez, Mateo and Clay were the men she attracted.
• Official Couple: With Melendez in Season 2. They break up in Season 3.
• Rank Up: After Han is fired at the end of season 2 she takes over as the new Chief of Surgery.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She is undoubtedly one of the most responsible doctors in the series, both for the health of her patients and the emotional state of her co-workers.
• The Rival: Lim has been Melendez's rival ever sense their residency and the two of them get very competitive with each other.
• Team Mom: is very nurturing to the residents, especially Shaun.
• What the Hell, Hero?: That being said, she does have to occasionally reprimand Shaun and the other residents for any mistakes they might make from time to time.

Lea Dilallo

"Are you a good doctor? Because when I think of you, I think you are"

Played by: Paige Spara

Shaun's neighbor, with whom he forms a burgeoning friendship and an unlikely but strong romance.

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• Adapted Out: There's no version of Lea in the Turkish adaptation. Like the Korean, the love interest role is taken over by the female lead.
• All There in the Manual: In the first three seasons, her last name was never been given on the show and was only revealed in a tweet by Paige Spara. Her last name was finally mentioned on-screen in Season 4.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: At the end of Season 3, after surviving an earthquake, Lea finally admits to Shaun that she loves him.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Lea almost dies in the earthquake in "Hurt" and spends a few hours among the rubbles of a building... and she remains beautiful.
• Betty and Veronica: Shaun is Archie, Carly is Betty and Lea is Veronica.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She is friendly and adorable, but be careful if you make her angry. Not even Shaun escapes that sometimes.
• Big Damn Kiss: Shaun and Lea end the finale of Season 3 by giving each other a passionate kiss, after three seasons of Will They or Won't They?, and allow the episode to end of a hopeful note after almost forty minutes of tragedy.
• Breakout Character: Lea was originally supposed to appear in just two episodes of Season 1. The positive reception of fans added with the writers enjoying the performance of Paige Spara and her chemistry with Freddie Highmore caused an increase in her appearances in the first season, and in her promotion to the main cast in Season 2.
• The Bus Came Back: After being absent during the second half of the first season because she moved out of the city, Lea returns at the first episode of Season 2.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: In Season 5 episode "Dry Spell", Shaun catches Lea in bed masturbating with a vibrating device. He doesn't seem fazed by it.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Lea's dialogues with Shaun suggest this. On more than one occasion, Lea says that Shaun is the only person in her life who never lied to her. She also frequently mentions that her brother blames her for the bankruptcy of his shop, although she never comments in detail what happened. And then, in Season 4, it is revealed that Lea was once married but divorced.
• Dark Secret: Downplayed. In Season 4, it is revealed that Lea was once married but divorced. Shaun is shocked to discover this, as she has never mentioned it to him once in the four years they have known each other as friends and lovers. Lea explains that the marriage took place ten years ago, lasted a short time and she didn't even think about her ex-husband for years. This explanation does not calm Shaun, who is afraid that one day the same will happen with their relationship.
• A Day in the Limelight: Season 4 episode "Decrypt" is mainly focused on Lea having to resolve a hacking attack at the hospital.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially with Shaun and Glassman.
• Decomposite Character: From Dr. Chan in the Korean version. More specifically her role as neighbor, best friend and love interest, while most other aspects were given to Claire.
• Drowning My Sorrows: It's subtle, but her first scene in the episode "Hurt" shows her buying two glasses of drink. When questioned, she says she had a difficult week, but when you remember that her last scene in the previous episode "Heartbreak" showed her being verbally humiliated by Shaun...
• Establishing Character Moment: Lea's two scenes in her first episode already say a lot about her impulsive but gentle personality. She is introduced as Shaun's neighbor, knocking on his apartment door to borrow batteries for his video game (they had never seen each other before) and advising him not to feed the cat otherwise he will never abandon him. At the end of the episode, Lea finds it strange, but doesn't complain when Shaun asks for the batteries back, and is impressed to discover that he is a surgeon (and only then do they introduce themselves).
• First Girl Wins: Technically, Shaun met Claire and Carly before Lea, but the feelings between him and Claire never went beyond pure friendship, and he fell in love with Lea before dating Carly. As such, Lea was Shaun's first love, and the two become a couple at the end of Season 3.
• First Love: Shaun even points out that Lea was the first woman for whom he felt romantic feelings.
• Friend Versus Lover: Carly (The lover) had a one-sided rivalry against her (the friend) with respect to Shaun, even though Lea actually supported their relationship.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: In the first two seasons, Lea interacted with only two of the dozens of characters in the main cast, Shaun and Glassman. Shaun's coworkers only know about Lea's existence because he keeps talking about her. This is justified by the fact that Shaun is not a very sociable person, rarely meeting with fellow doctors in situations outside the hospital. In Season 3, she starts working at the hospital and finally interacts with the co-workers of Shaun. She gets along with most of them... except Morgan. The two immediately hate each other.
• Gamer Chick: She's introduced coming over to Shaun's apartment to borrow batteries for her game controller (and later dialogue from Shaun implies that she has done so again since). She apparently likes the Uncharted series.
• Girl Next Door: Lea is introduced in this way to Shaun, as his neighbor.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Downplayed. Lea becomes pregnant with Shaun in Season 4 and seriously considers abortion, as she does not think she has the emotional maturity and is not the right time to be a mother. Shaun wants to be a father, but he kindly accepts Lea's decision, without fighting. However, at the last minute, when Lea goes to the abortion clinic, she changes her mind and decides that she wants to have the child.
• Hate at First Sight: To no one's surprise, Lea and Morgan barely exchange half a dozen words and already hate each other.
• History Repeats: When discussing her first marriage, Lea describes to Shaun that her ex-husband was literally the Boy Next Door. Coincidentally, that is that this is exactly how Shaun and Lea met, as neighbors.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Lea desperately tries to convince Shaun to give up the idea of being roommates just because she fears the possibility that they will fall in love with each other and ruin his friendship. She finally gives in, but what she feared ends up happening in Season 3, and she again uses this trope to convince Shaun to give up the idea of investing in a romantic relationship with her.
• It's Not You, It's Me: Rejects Shaun's Love Confession despite her own feelings for him, because she belives he won't be happy with her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Despite her feelings for Shaun, she fully supported his relationship with Carly.
• Just Friends: Lea and Shaun decide to be just that in Season 2, mainly because they live together and don't want to ruin their wonderful friendship. This falls into ruins in Season 3, when a series of events force them to admit that they are in love with each other. At the end of Season 3, they finally become a couple.
• Leg Focus: In "The Uncertainty Principle" we get a shot of Lea's bare legs as she removes her bathrobe to join Shaun in the shower.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Lea constantly appears with several boyfriends who never last long and with a generic characterization (to the point that some don't even have names mentioned). She even points this out to Shaun before they move in together. In Season 3, she finally admits that she has been in love with Shaun for a long time, but that she is terrified of starting a relationship because she thinks it is too problematic to deal with his autism. The two finally become a couple in the finale. In Season 4, it is revealed that Lea has been married in the past but divorced after a brief period of time, which may explain all of her behavior on the series.
• Love Epiphany: In the two-part finale "Hurt" and "I Love You", after surviving an earthquake, listening (accidentally) to Shaun's confession of love and almost losing him in the earthquake, Lea finally realizes that she really loves Shaun and wants to have a serious relationship with him.
• Master of the Mixed Message: For the first three seasons, she doesn't seem to decide if Shaun is just a friend or if really have feelings for him.
• Ms. Fanservice: In the episode "Friends and Family", she has a scene in which she takes off her pants before throwing herself into a lake.
• Mysterious Past: In Season 4, Shaun finds out that Lea has been married in the past, and he can't understand why she never told him that at any point in the four years since they met. She admits that she never revealed that because the marriage lasted a short time and she hasn't even thought about her ex-husband for years. This response only makes Shaun more fearful that this could happen to their relationship one day.
• Nice Girl: She rolls with Shaun's quirks and doesn't seem at all put off by his Brutal Honesty. She is also Brutal Honesty sometimes to Glassman's anger, but Shaun has no problem with it and even admires her for it. Unfortunately, she also represents the bad aspects of this trope. She is passive-aggressive, Innocently Insensitive, and afraid of commitment and confrontation. The result is that her actions end up confusing or hurting Shaun even if it is not her intentions.
• Odd Friendship: Shaun and Lea are the complete opposite of each other, and against all possibilities, they are each other's best friends. And at the end of Season 3, they become a couple.
• Official Couple: With Shaun at the finale of Season 3.
• Out of Focus: She suffers this in the first half of Season 3, missing six of the 20 episodes. It is justified because she is the only character who does not work in the hospital and Shaun's girlfriend, Carly, has reservations about the friendship between them.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Played With. She attempts to have this type of relationship with Shaun for much of the second season and third season, but it is obvious in many moments that he is in love with her, eventually the platonic part is abandoned completely by the end of the third.
• Pregnancy Makes You Crazy: In episode 4.11, Lea acts in an apparently irrational way for most of the episode, refusing to pay a traffic ticket to retrieve her car and looking for other unconventional ways, in addition to being irritated with Shaun for not defending her. At the end of the episode, when Shaun confronts her about it, Lea reveals that she found out two days ago that she is pregnant. In episode 4.13, the pregnancy makes Lea sick to the toothpaste that Shaun uses.
• Put on a Bus: Moves to Hershey, PA in "Islands." And then she returns at the beginning of Season 2.
• Sad Clown: She constantly makes jokes and loves to play games. However, when you take off her mask, you are shocked to realize that she is broken, full of insecurities and with a messy life, using humor as a defense mechanism.
• Self-Deprecation: Lea is the first to admit that her professional and romantic life is a mess.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Initially invoked and then averted. In "The Shaun Show" she wants to talk to Sophie, who is filming her and Shaun's life, privately about the latter supposedly trying to exploit his autism. When she refuses to turn the camera off, however, Sophie relents after Lea indirectly threatens to strip down.
• Tragic Stillbirth: In Season 4, Lea and Shaun lose their unborn daughter due to medical complications.
• Unknown Rival: Carly sees her as a possible rival in a "friend vs. lover" (or even a Love Triangle) situation, even when Lea has no problem with her.
• Will They or Won't They?: Lea is introduced as the Girl Next Door to Shaun, providing him with some much-needed companionship outside of work and helping him with various emotional problems. There is also a sexual tension between them, and they even kiss on two occasions. However she moves out of the city about halfway through the first season and when she comes back in season 2, after fighting and reconciling with Shaun, they decide that their are Better as Friends. They also decide to live together and help each other in their personal, professional and romantic lives. However, some of the co-workers of Shaun and even his girlfriend, Carly, don't seem to believe that they are only friends. Finally in Season 3, Shaun is forced to admit that he has romantic feelings for Lea. He finds out that Lea also has romantic feelings for him, but she is afraid to start a relationship because of her troubled personality and because of Shaun's autism. At the end of Season 3, after the two survived an earthquake, Lea finally decides that she doesn't want to waste another second and she and Shaun finally become a couple.

Dr. Carly Lever

Played by: Jasika Nicole

The hospital's head pathologist. She becomes Shaun's girlfriend at the end of season 2, but they break up in Season 3.

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• All Take and No Give: Played with. Initially she complains that she has to work hard to make their relationship work, while Shaun can't do something as simple as seeing her for more than 15 seconds, eventually Shaun decides to make more of an effort.
• Betty and Veronica: Shaun is Archie, Carly is Betty and Lea is Veronica.
• Breakout Character: Carly had a few brief appearances in Season 1, then her role expanded towards the end of Season 2 when Shaun was (temporarily) moved to her department. In the Season 2 finale, Shaun asks her out on a date, and she accepts, leading to an ongoing story arc between the two in Season 3.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: A strange case. Carly's last appearance is in the episode "Autopsy", where Shaun finally admits that he loves Lea and she encourages him to declare himself to Lea. After that, Carly no longer appears in the final four episodes of the season, and eventually the showrunner revealed that her character would not return to the series, without any in-universe explanation for her absence.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: A relatively benign example, but she shows somewhat irrational jealousy against Lea due to how comfortable Shaun is around her.
• Friend Versus Lover: She (The lover) had a one-sided rivalry against Lea (The friend) with respect to Shaun.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: She has this attitude towards Lea and Shaun, even when Lea has never shown any intention of stealing Shaun from her. That said Lea does have feelings for Shaun, just buried, so Carly's insecurities aren't unjustified.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After she sees how intimate the two really are, and the strength of their connection, Carly voluntarily breaks up with Shaun after realizing that he is in love with Lea and vice versa, even encouraging him to confess his feelings to her.
• Love Epiphany: A rare case where it is a third-person who realizes this about a possible couple. During the karaoke scene in "Unsaid", it's terribly obvious to Carly that Shaun and Lea are in love with each other, and worse, they both refuse to admit it. At the end of the episode, Carly breaks up with Shaun for that reason.
• Nice Girl: One of the nicest characters in the series, as her kindness and patience with Shaun can prove. She even voluntarily breaks up with Shaun when she realizes that he and Lea clearly love each other, but are too insecure to admit it to each other.
• Not So Above It All: Although she is usually a very nice girl, her jealousy against Lea brings out the worst in her, to the point of giving Shaun an ultimatum.
• Promoted to Love Interest: At the end of Season 2.
• Put on a Bus: Carly's last appearance was in episode 16 of the third season, "Autopsy". Her absence was never explained by any character.
• Temporary Love Interest: Carly begins dating Shaun in season 3 and, despite a rocky start, the two form a powerful relationship with each other and which leads Shaun to go outside his comfort zone further then ever before. However Shaun's feelings for Lea, and vice versa, end up being far stronger then his feelings for her and so Carly breaks up with Shaun about three-fourths of a way through the season so that he can be with Lea.
• You Never Did That for Me: In "Fractured" Carly gets upset after she finds out that Shaun and Lea hugged each other to sleep after his emotional confrontation with his father since Shaun had no trouble getting intimate with Lea, even when they needed weeks of hard work to accomplish the same.
• You're Just Jealous: Several characters call her out for her jealous attitude towards Lea.

Dr. Jordan Allen

Played by: Bria Samone Henderson

One of the new four hospital residents who develops a close friendship with Asher.

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• Deadpan Snarker: Mostly with Asher, and later Jared.
• Has a Type: Jared lampshades her type of guys as those who she takes care of, not only as a doctor but also as part of her comfort zone, such as Perez who is a drug addict and a patient named Nathan Speed, her friend from her church choir with a chronic illness.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: She and Lea start becoming this as of Season 5.
• Honor Before Reason: Jordan cancels at the last minute her hot date for tonight to be with Lea, who temporarily moved in with her to blow off steam from her fight with Shaun.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Despite initially not being likeable due to her inability to respect authority, she isn't wrong in pointing out to Shaun, who is in charge of training residents, that she has a problem with him not acting like authority and that she has to know he has her back.
  • Also, on her very first day as a resident, Andrews calls her out for undermining his medical judgement in front of a 17-year-old breast augmentation patient, a mistake Jordan apologizes for, but still stands her ground by arguing what she thinks is best for the patient's interest. Her assertiveness impresses Andrews as it reminds him a lot of Claire.
  • Jordan was in her right not to join Lim's mutiny against Salen, per Asher's demands, as she couldn't afford to put her residency at risk.
• Love Triangle: Ends up finding herself in one with Perez and Jared, especially after the former sees them almost kissing.
• Replacement Goldfish: After Claire is Put on a Bus after Season 4, Jordan fills in her role as Shaun's personal advisor concerning his personal life.
• Sadistic Choice: Downplayed. She has to choose between giving the injured Danny opioid medication or let him die from a heart failure when he asks her not to. Jordan ultimately chooses the former, giving him fentanyl, saving his life but costing them the chance of a romantic relationship, and states that the decision wasn't hard for her.
• Token Black Friend: To Asher.
• Token Religious Teammate: Jordan, who is religious, refuses to do an abortion due to her beliefs. Nevertheless, she is called out by Dr. Lim because of it.

Dr. Asher Wolke

Played by: Noah Galvin

One of the new four hospital residents who is openly gay.

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• Bury Your Gays: In the middle of season 7, Asher is killed by two anti-Semites who were vandalizing a synagogue after he defiantly threatened to call the cops on them.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Asher becomes mad at Jerome for not telling him that he's been HIV-positive for years.

Dr. Daniel Perez

Played by: Brandon Larracuente

One of the new residents and a recovering drug addict who has a crush on Dr. Allen.

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• Almost Kiss: With Jordan, until he backs out without an explanation. Later on, it is revealed that he's a recovering drug addict, so he must put his sobriety first before pursuing relationships, so they agree to remain friends.
• Betty and Veronica: Played with. Danny has the position of a Betty (being a good-looking Nice Guy, but his drug addiction history (and relapse) make him a Veronica. Jared, on the other hand, has the position of a Veronica (an egotistical know-it-all Non-Idle Rich doctor), but his genuine Character Development post-Season 1 places him as a Betty.
• Chick Magnet: He catches the eye of most of the nurses, and Jordan.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His drug addiction history.
• Functional Addict:
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's immediately triggered with this after witnessing Jordan and Jared almost kissing, so much that he clashes with Jared in a case with him, Jordan and Asher. Despite initially denying it, Perez admits to being jealous of Jared, but nevertheless tells Jordan she deserves someone who's willing to commit.
• Mr. Fanservice: Has a shirtless scene in the locker room, with Jordan admiring his physique.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Perez, initially starting off as a recurring character alongside Dr. Powell, gets upgraded to a series regular just four episodes after his introduction. However, he starts being credited in this capacity from the episode "365 Degrees".
• Put on a Bus: After a fatal car crash in which he's injured, Jordan, despite Danny's objections, gives him fentanyl to save his life. Danny later decides to go back to Texas with his family and recover from his addiction.

Dr. Mateo Rendón Osma

Played by: Osvaldo Benavides

A Mexican-American surgeon whom the team meets in Guatemala. He starts a romantic relationship with Dr. Lim during their time together in Guatemala.

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• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Although Dr. Mateo Rendón (Osvaldo Benavides) was promoted to a main character shortly after his debut, resulting in him moving to San Jose and getting a job at St. Bonaventure to be closer to Lim, he was quickly written off the show after Benavides left (or was possibly fired) for unknown reasons. When Lim gets one of Mateo's ex-girlfriends as a patient, she learns of how Mateo neglected and ignored her while being away for long periods of time aside from sending occasional gifts and notes, which is exactly what he was now doing to Lim. She breaks up with him via voicemail while he's still away. Mateo ended up only appearing in a total of six episodes (less than Salen Morrison, despite Rachel Bay Jones being credited as a guest in all appearances), and the show has not directly acknowledged what happened to him since; Salen claims Lim fired him due to the failed relationship, but Lim claims he quit on his own.
• Latin Lover: And he's played no less by Mexican actor Osvaldo Benavides.
• Put on a Bus: After appearing in four episodes as a series regular, Mateo quits from St. Bonaventure Hospital and returns to Guatemala.

Secondary Characters

Steve Murphy

Played by: Dylan Kingwell

Shaun's younger brother, who was his crutch and protector when they were young. He smuggled the pair away from their father, but died shortly after.

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• Big Brother Instinct: He was very protective of his brother. Inverted in that he's the younger brother, but cared dearly for Shaun and protected him from anyone who intended to harm or mock him.
• The Bus Came Back: In a way. He isn't mentioned very much in Season 2, but it's his words that give Andrews the push to fire Han in the season finale and give Shaun his job back.
• Posthumous Character: In effect, since the story does not revert 10 years; only in flashbacks is he shown, after it's established that he died.
• Promotion to Parent: Receives one probably as soon as he was able to look out for Shaun, culminating in him properly looking after Shaun when the latter is 14 and the abuse from their father reaches its peak.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: So far the kindest character on the show, but he died aged about 10.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Manages to outfit a bus to live in, is very kind to a relatively-incapacitated older brother, and even manages to buy him presents while doing anything to protect him. He does all of this because he believes Shaun is "the smart one" who's going to do something important with his life. He was right.

Dalisay Villanueva

Played by: Elfina Luk

A nurse at St. Bonaventure Hospital

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• Ascended Extra: She is given much more importance towards the end of the fifth season when she is revealed as a victim of Domestic Abuse under her partner Owen and Lim helps her through it. In season 6 too, entering a relationship with Andrews.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Despite enduring a fatal knife bloodied wound from Owen, she survives and is fine.
• Domestic Abuse: She is revealed to be a victim of this because of her partner Owen.
• Missing Mom: Her mother died of cancer.
• Nice Girl: She's the warmest of all the nurses who work at the hospital.
• Out of Focus: For most of the first four seasons stays on the background assisting whenever is necessary.

Kenny

Played by: Chris D'Elia

Shaun's new neighbor after Lea moves away.

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• Chekhov's Skill: He breaks into Shaun's apartment to talk to him. Later, Shaun asks him to break into the pool.
• Foil: To Lea. Where Lea is kind, Kenny is a selfish moocher who takes advantage of Shaun's autism.
  • This culminates in him turning his usual pizza night with Shaun into borrowing his TV without asking, having sports fan friends over to watch the big game, refusing to let Shaun in because of his autism, and taking the pizza from him.
• Offscreen Karma: Shaun mentions that he was arrested for an unspecified crime and hasn't been seen since.

Dr. Jackson Han

Played By: Daniel Dae Kim

The new Chief of Surgery at St. Jose St. Bonaventure after Andrews is forced to relinquish the position after keeping it for himself.

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• The Ace: Instantly establishes himself as being far more experienced, knowledgeable, and confident than even Dr Lim. Plus, he also knows how to play hardball politics better than Andrews.
• Asian and Nerdy: He's a doctor (which, so far, covers the "Nerdy" part) and played by Korean-American Daniel Dae Kim.
• Dr. Jerk: He's a highly accomplished doctor and surgeon. But, he's also arrogant, prejudiced, and holds the other residents to exceedingly high standards that stress them out. He also makes it clear he doesn't care if he intimidates them as long as they meet his standards.
• Evil Counterpart: "The Bad Doctor" to Shaun's Good Doctor in an interesting way. Both are brilliant doctors with bright futures ahead of them. However, Han is a man who knows how to navigate society but intimidates his peers and doesn't care that his high standards leave them stressed. Shaun on the other hand has no social skills which sometimes compromise his duties as a doctor, but he inspires his peers and becomes a beloved co-worker.
• Insufferable Genius: He is a world-class genius surgeon, and you can either keep up with him or get run over by his intellect.
• It's All About Me: So much so that he skipped his own welcoming party to perform surgery. He also demands the residents keep up with his ridiculously high standards the second he meets them and refuses to accept any of their excuses - no matter how valid they actually are.
• Jerkass: To a degree greater than Melendez, Andrews, and Morgan combined. He even butts heads with Melendez in "Breakdown" over his attitude.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he's a complete douche about it, he does have a few valid concerns about an autistic person working as a surgeon, although it's rather undermined by his prejudiced attitude towards Shaun's autism.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: At the end of his introductory episode, Han commends Shaun for his skills... only to announce he's transferring him to Pathology against Shaun's wishes. He's also a remembrance of Shaun's evil father, Ethan.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He's finally fired in the Season 2 finale after Andrews initiates a vote of confidence amongst the hospital board. He bluntly says Andrews is firing him to save Shaun's medical career, to which Andrews says yes.
• Noodle Incident: He knew someone with ASD who died. While you think this would make him a more sympathetic character, he uses it as reasoning to think less of Shaun and that his autism will always be a handicap for him in society, especially as a doctor. It's why he's firm in his choice to make sure Shaun doesn't succeed in his medical career.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He's not a villain per se. But he does exhibit a highly prejudiced attitude toward Shaun for his autism and openly dismisses his proven capability as well as mulitple doctors backing up Shaun's medical skills. It's best illustrated by this line:
  Han: [to Lim] No matter how hard he works, no matter how hard you try and help him, his limitations are not going to change. He's going to continue to inflict them on our patients all in the name of diversity and inclusion.
• Sadist Teacher: He is constantly testing and pushing the residents to meet his incredibly high standards. It's a primary reason many dislike him as he just stresses them out with these tests and standards that even the most experienced of them struggle to meet.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Classic example. He transfers Shaun to Pathology, shuts down any attempt by Claire and Lim to speak on Shaun's behalf; ignores Shaun's pleas to be moved back to surgery, and fires Shaun when he takes a stand against him and suffers a meltdown while he's at it.
• Villain Respect: Not exactly a villain, but while he does do whatever he can to keep Shaun out of surgery and looks down on him for his autism, he does often praise Shaun as skilled and talented. His main problem is that he believes Shaun belongs in Pathology due to his autism, and that automatically disqualifies him from surgery.

Dr. Olivia Jackson

Played by: Summer Brown

One of the new four hospital residents who happens to be Andrews' niece.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Andrews calls her "Livy".
• Be Yourself: What Olivia wants to do when telling her uncle why she never wants to be a doctor, as Andrews himself, her parents and her professors kept pressuring and encouraging her into pursuing a career she didn't even like.
• Put on a Bus: Her last appearance in the fourth season is in "Decrypt", when she gets herself fired by falsely taking credit of being the whistleblower who leaked information to the media about a patient who lied about being a cancer survivor, not only to fix the frienship between Claire and Lim, but also to find a more suitable career.
• The Scapegoat: Falsely takes credit of a whistleblower's role in leaking information to the media about a patient lying about being a cancer survivor to protect Claire, who was unfairly accused by Lim, resulting in her firing Olivia right on the spot. It turns out that she intentionally got herself fired as she never wanted to become a doctor in the first place. Even when Andrews admits to being said whistleblower, Olivia still doesn't sell him out to Lim.

Dr. Enrique Guerin

Played by: Brian Marc

One of the new four hospital residents who is polyamorous.

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• Put on a Bus: In "Teeny Blue Eyes", he leaves St. Bonaventure to join a program that will allow him to help out in needy areas of the world.

Salen Morrison

Played by: Rachel Bay Jones

The CEO of Ethicure who buys the St. Bonaventure Hospital after it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

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• Affably Evil: Despite being far from likeable in-and-off-universe, however, Salen is shown to have good interactions with Shaun, Lea and Andrews, who would then start dating her.
• Big Bad: Becomes this during the first half of the fifth season.
• Blackmail: Makes Dr. Fremes, the pharmacist, sign a discretion agreement, then later threatens to release sensitive investigation files concerning the questionable actions of Lim (hiring and supposedly firing her boyfriend Mateo, citing it as a "sexual harassment case", though she corrects Salen that he had quit), Glassman (using his vacations to Montana as an excuse for neglecting his responsibilities as president of the hospital) and Lea (deleting Shaun's poor scores, mostly out of pity but partially out of love).
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: She serves as one to Dr. Jackson Han from season 2, as she takes over the hospital and implements a lot of changes in it that most of the employees are hardly trying to get used to. She did initially have a good relationship with some of the characters like Shaun, Lea, Andrews and Morgan. However, after an infant is killed due to expired medicine and most of Shaun's friends are fired due to their campaign against her, they all rally together to take her down, as opposed to Han, who fired Shaun and the others, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't do anything but tell Shaun to move on. It's thanks to Andrews that both Han and Salen get their comeuppances.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: A greedy businesswoman who takes over the hospital, implements a lot of controversial changes and becomes an enemy of the staff. To make it worse, she not only gets away with killing a baby due to expired medicine, but also threatens Lim, Glassman and Lea into silence if they go public against her.
• Karma Houdini: Salen never receives any proper punishment for her actions, especially after Andrews, with whom she had a relationship, makes her walk away quietly, just as her sworn enemies were about to testify againt her. The only thing bad that happens to her is that she ends up losing and signs off her rights to the hospital.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The poster she had put at the hospital about Shaun's autism ends up backfiring greatly on Salen, starting from Shaun quitting to then asking her for the job back the next day, using the poster against Salen to give her a reason to take him back and avoid any PR backlash.
• Put on a Bus: Makes her last appearance on "Cheat Day", just mere moments before her disgruntled employees can go against her, when Andrews convinces her to walk away and she signs off the Ethicure ownership.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Her company purchases the hospital, implementing a lot of controversial changes, including discharing patients (or "clients" as she calls them) shortly after finishing them up to make way for others and is indirectly responsible for an infant's death due to expired medicine, even going as far as to cover her faults to keep the hospital's image intact, showing little to no concern for how this ended up affecting the others, Shaun and Lim included.

Dr. Danica Powell

Played by: Savannah Welch

One of the new residents and a former US Navy Lieutenant who lost her right leg following a flight deck accident. She forms a friendship with Lim over her paralysis and often clashes with Shaun, who has become an attending surgeon.

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• Artificial Limbs: Has a prosthetic right leg after being forced to amputate the original one after her accident.
• Foil: To Shaun. They're both disabled surgeons (physically and developmentally) who are rebellious in nature and often challenge their superiors. However, Shaun is able to learn of his mistakes when he's called out on them, while Powell stands firm on her own principles and doesn't show remorse whatsoever for her bad decisions, which ultimately bites her in the ass after an unauthorized surgery on her friend costs Powell her residency. Lea herself is able to see through their similarities, but Shaun thinks she's referring to Morgan when they discuss her attitude.
• Hypocrite: Apart from her other bad decisions, Powell doesn't regret advising Lim against the surgery that cured her paralysis (and her friendship with Shaun), even though she still allowed it to take place.
• Jerkass Has a Point: For rebellious and stubborn as she can be, Powell wasn't actually wrong when she chewed Shaun out for constantly shooting down her ideas while treating their Patient of the Week and pointed out that their common ground is them being disabled (Powell having a prosthetic leg and Shaun having autism) and being treated differently. Their mutual interest in ancient surgical history is what smooths things over between them.
• Karma Houdini: Aside from her firing, Lim opts not to report Powell harboring a paroled criminal to the police.
• The Matchmaker: Powell sets Lim up on a date with pediatrician Clay Porter, also a wheelchair user.
• Never My Fault: Subverted. Powell is aware of her wrongdoings during her time at the hospital and never blames anyone, except that she doesn't apologize and thinks they were the right call to make, even if they weren't. She was even willing to take full responsibility for the unauthorized surgery on her friend Vince, when she begged Lim not to punish Asher because of her. Powell also apologized to Asher when he bitterly informed her he got a two-month probation.
• No Sympathy: Powell discourages Lim from doing the surgery that could cure her paralysis, but at the same time shows ZERO concern over how it might hurt Shaun, who thought this was the only way he and Lim could be friends again.
• Put on a Bus: In "The Good Boy", Powell's constant pattern of disobedience becomes the last straw for Lim, who fires her for doing an unauthorized surgery on her Navy friend Vince, who is on parole, although Lim doesn't report her to the police nor does Powell regret her actions, as Vince is not put back to prison and reunites with his family.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Even after Powell got caught doing the unauthorized surgery at her home, she still believes that saving her paroled friend was the right thing to do, smiling as she sees Vince with his family, walking out of the hospital with her head held high.
• The Unapologetic: Powell's pattern of disobedience consists of a) refusing to participate in a xenotransplant, b) removing the restraints from a mentally-unstable teenager patient who escapes and c) doing an unauthorized surgery on her Navy friend, Vince, who is on parole, even dragging Asher and Lim along. However, she never apologizes nor does she take any accountability for her actions, when Shaun, Park and Lim herself call her out on them. Even after her and Shaun parted on good terms at the end of "Hot and Bothered", Powell didn't apologize to Shaun either for robbing him of his chance to at least repair his friendship with Lim.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Powell gives one to Asher for insensitively asking her a question about her military career.
  • She also gives another to Shaun over how poorly he's treating her and actively shooting down her ideas.

Charlotte Lukaitis

Played by: Kayla Cromer

An autistic med student who looks up to Shaun. She goes by Charlie.

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• Ascended Fangirl: She has always idolized Shaun, and gets to work with him on her very first day as a med student.
• Broken Pedestal: Charlie feels this way about Shaun after her errors (which she still refuses to acknowledge) become the last straw for him to kick her out of the OR a second time, with Glassman even revealing to Shaun that she had filed a complaint against him.
• Can't Take Criticism: Her Fatal Flaw basically is her inability to acknowledge she's made mistakes. Even Shaun was understandably frustrated with her unprofessional behavior.
• The Dog Bites Back: After Shaun has lost all his patience with Charlie and kicks her out of the OR, she responds by filing a complaint against him, an information Glassman relays to Shaun.
• Motor Mouth: Charlie is very talkative, to the point that Shaun cannot stand when she's either interrupting him or making invasions questions to coworkers.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While she is dealing with a patient named Rich alongside Jared and Shaun, Charlie accidentally finds out that his daughter Grace is a sex worker and she relays the information when it wasn't her place to intervene in a family matter. Because of this, Rich almost backs out of the surgery until Shaun has to intervene and change his mind.
• Never My Fault: Geez...just everytime Shaun or anyone tries to tell Charlie that that is not the right behavior she's supposed to have at a workplace, she clearly refuses to admit she did anything wrong. She even had the gall to pull the disability card on Shaun by accusing him of interrupting her, when she was the one actually interrupting him and he was simply reacting like any other attending surgeon would, also misinterpreting a suggestion for something that is not by having a nurse give incorrect medication to a frat college student patient. It's like Charlie does nothing but expect to be given special treatment just because of her condition and everyone catering to every one of her whims.
• The Pollyanna: She's bubbly and very cheerful all the time.
• Saying Too Much: Charlie's Motor Mouth causes discourse between a father and daughter in "Skin in the Game". When Charlie catches the daughter in her car doing a striptease over a video call for someone she addresses as "Daddy" (not her father), the latter confesses that she makes thousands as a sex worker, but her father doesn't know. Charlie and Jared (who also witnessed it) assure her that they won't tell her father. When they inform both parties that the father will need lifetime home care, the daughter mentions that she can convert her office, to which Charlie responds, "As long as you have privacy elsewhere for your work." The father gets suspicious after hearing the odd emphasis she put on the word "work" and everyone else tries to brush it off. When the daughter says, "Love you, Daddy", Charlie comments, "So many daddies, so little time", and the truth ends up coming out.
• You Talk Too Much!: Her most defining trait as lampshaded by Shaun.

Dominick Hubank

Played by: Wavy Jonez

Another med student and a former american football player.

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• Afraid of Blood: Dom always faints at the very first sight of blood, which worries him because he feels like he won't be taken seriously as a doctor because of it. Fortunately for him, Park is patient enough with him.
• Gentle Giant: He's a very big guy, and a nice person as well.

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