The Good Doctor is ushering in the next generation of doctors. The second episode of the show’s farewell season will introduce two new med students, one of which is autistic, just like Dr. Shaun Murphy. Who is Charlie Lukaitis on The Good Doctor? Keep reading to learn more about the new character and the actress who plays her.
ABC’s The Good Doctor is a medical drama following Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore), a young, autistic surgical resident at the fictional San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Despite skepticism from his colleagues, Shaun use his extraordinary gifts and unique talents to save lives, eventually rising to the attending level. The series first premiered in 2017 and is currently on it seventh and final season. Rounding out the cast is Richard Schiff as Aaron Glassman; Christina Chang as Audrey Lim; Chuku Modu as Jared Kalu; Fiona Gubelmann as Morgan Reznick; Will Yun Lee as Alex Park; Paige Spara as Lea Dilallo; Noah Galvin as Asher Wolke; Giacomo Baessato as Jerome Martel and Bria Samoné Henderson as Jordan Allen.
Following original cast member Hill Harper’s exit, The Good Doctor has added two new cast additions. Fans are particularly excited to see Kayla Cromer’s debut as Charlie Lukaitis and are interested to see what her relationship with Shaun will be like. Learn more about the new character below.
Who is Charlie Lukaitis on The Good Doctor?
Who is Charlie Lukaitis on The Good Doctor? Charlotte “Charlie” Lukaitis is a third-year med student who, like Shaun, has Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has idolized Shaun ever since she saw the viral video of him saving a boy’s life at the San Jose airport, and he is the reason she wants to become a surgeon. Charlie is almost too eager to meet Shaun and start her rotation at St. Bonaventure. In an exclusive clip of Episode 2 obtained by TVLine, Charlie meets Shaun for the first time and doesn’t not hold back in expressing her admiration for him.
“Charlie brings this huge amount of enthusiasm and excitement,” co-showrunner Liz Friedman told TVLine ahead of the episode. “She really idolizes Shaun, and that’s such a fun dynamic. You’ve met your hero. Now, what are you going to learn from your hero? How is that going to work out?”
Charlie and fellow med student Dominick “Dom” Hubank (Wavyy Jonez) are also the first med students to come on board. The show has introduced plenty of young residents, including Dr. Danny Perez (Brandon Larracuente) and Dr. Jordan Allen (Asher Wolke), but residents have already completed med school and have a bit more knowledge and experience in the medical field than students do.
“We’ve never done med students before. Usually, the new doctors on the show are residents, and residents are already well into being competent doctors. Med students, it’s very interesting,” Friedman previously told TV Insider about the decision to introduce Charlie and Dom. “For two years, you go to med school in the classroom exclusively, and then all of a sudden, you are spit out onto a hospital floor, and you’re expected to start the process of learning how to be a doctor in a very practical, boots-on-the-ground sense. But med students don’t know how to bandage a wound. They don’t know how to draw blood; they’ve never done it before.”
While Charlie and Shaun have ASD in common, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to get along. Freidman teased that the two will have a “complicated relationship,” as Shaun figures out how to welcome Charlie into St. Bonaventure. “What was really exciting to us was the idea that Shaun being at St. Bonaventure has really had an impact on our characters in that they’ve learned the very real value, both on a medical and personal level, of accepting Shaun and going outside their comfort zone of who you would typically think could be a doctor or a surgeon,” the EP told the outlet. “They’ve learned the positives of that, and they’re fairly then equipped and motivated to accommodate Charlie. That’s a tougher task for Shaun because of his ASD.” Freidman added that they also wanted to challenge the assumption that Shaun and Charlie are “natural allies,” noting that they wanted to “look at the ways in which who they are makes it very difficult for them to connect particularly with each other.”
Charlie will be played by actress Kayla Cromer, who is autistic in real life. Cromer broke history in 2020 when she became the first person with autism to play an autistic character in a series-regular role on 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.
Her character on The Good Doctor also shares a last name with Paul Lukaitis, the show’s former production manager who passed away in October 2023. He was honored at the end of the Season 7 opener, and perhaps Charlie’s surname is an homage to him as well.
