On the heels of Hill Harper and Brandon Larracuente‘s departures as Drs. Marcus Andrews and Danny Perez, respectively, the ABC medical drama has recruited Kayla Cromer (Everything’s Gonna Be Okay) and Wavyy Jonez (Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.) for major recurring roles in the seventh and final season.
Cromer will be play Charlene “Charlie” Lukaitis, “a third-year medical student who’s excited both for this rotation and the chance to work with her hero, Dr. Shaun Murphy,” according to the official character breakdown. “Like Shaun, she has Autism Spectrum Disorder, and she has idolized him since she first saw the viral video of him saving a boy’s life at the San Jose airport. Empowered and energetic, her passion for surgery may only be matched by her love for Taylor Swift.”
Jonez will play fellow third year Dominick “Dom” Hubank. The character is described as “a gentle giant who was hoping this surgical rotation was just a box to check on his way to become the family doctor in his underserved community. But this former football player learns he isn’t as tough as he appears when he faints at the sight of blood. Too big to fail, Dom must overcome his newly discovered hemophobia, and will need his peer and friend Charlie to do so.”
The pair will first appear in Season 7’s second episode, “Skin in the Game,” written by Garrett Lerner and Nathalie Touboul, and directed by series star Highmore. They join returning series regulars Highmore (who plays the aforementioned Dr. Murphy), Richard Schiff (Dr. Aaron Glassman), Fiona Gubelmann (Dr. Morgan Reznick), Will Yun Lee (Dr. Alex Park), Christina Chang (Dr. Audrey Lim), Paige Spara (Lea Dilallo), Bria Samoné Henderson (Dr. Jordan Allen), Noah Galvin (Dr. Asher Wolke) and Chuku Modu (as Jared Kalu).
ABC notes that Cromer was the first person with autism to play an autistic character in a series-regular role on American television when she was cast as Matilda in the Freeform comedy Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. She also voices Twyla, the shy autistic daughter of the Boogeyman, in Nickelodeon’s animated series Monster High.
Jonez, meanwhile, got his big break when he was tapped to play Biggie Smalls in the USA Network limited series Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. Additional TV credits include Apple TV+’s Dickinson, Hulu’s Reprisal and Wu-Tang: An American Saga, and NBC’s Young Rock.
