‘Shameless’ Alum Richard Flood Joins ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Cast As Pediatric Surgeon

As those who have been watching Season 16 of Grey’s Anatomy know, the medical drama has taken a strange twist with its cast members. Notably, Dr. Miranda Bailey (played by Chandra Wilson) continues to fire people.

Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) was fired alongside Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) and Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).

So, it isn’t too surprising for fans to learn a few new cast members may start to filter into the show. As Alex Karev has seemingly moved on from Grey Sloan and is currently working to improve a struggling hospital with all sorts of problems, it seems unlikely that he would ever return to work under Bailey. There is also the fact that Karev continues to pull Bailey’s former employees over to work at his hospital instead.

In this week’s episode, for example, we saw Alex give Owen a grand tour of the hospital. Owen happened to be in the right place at the right time and ended up assisting in a medical emergency. Afterward, Alex offered him a way to get out of the stressful situation he was currently dealing with at Grey Sloan by proposing he worked at Pac North instead.

With Alex no longer working for Bailey, Grey Sloan has a notable opening for the head of the pediatric surgery department. According to Deadline, the position has been filled.

Having recently concluded a stint as a member of the Showtime hit series Shameless cast, Richard Flood is officially stepping into the role of Dr. Cormac Hayes. Flood had previously played the role of a character in Shameless referred to as Ford.

Ford was a temporary boyfriend of the lovely Fiona Gallagher (Emmy Rossum). Flood exited the show shortly before Rossum did after her character learned her boyfriend hadn’t been completely honest. Turned out, Ford was married. Flood’s time as a member of the cast came to an end with the Gallaghers stripping and humiliating him for the entire neighborhood to see.

Richard Flood is a 37-year-old Irish actor with just a handful of credits to his name including Red Rock, Killing Kennedy, Crossing Lines, and The Unseen.

According to chatter on social media, fans aren’t particularly thrilled by the latest addition to the cast. This is because many believe Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) should have been brought back to take over the position as opposed to adding someone new. A few fans of the series have even taken to Twitter to express concern for whether the writers will attempt to connect him to Meredith as a potential love interest.

Unsurprisingly, the change in casting also has some concerned for if Justin Chambers could potentially be leaving Grey’s Anatomy.