BROOKE SMITH JOINS THE CAST OF ABC'S "GREY'S ANATOMY"

Actress Brooke Smith joins the cast of ABC's critically acclaimed, award-winning series "Grey's Anatomy." Smith, who has guest starred multiple times on the series in past seasons, plays the no-nonsense, well-respected Dr. Erica Hahn, who enters the staff of Seattle Grace as its top cardiothoracic surgeon.

Smith has acted in feature films including Mira Nair's "The Namesake," Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" and Curtis Hanson's "In Her Shoes." Other films include "Series 7," "The Silence of the Lambs," Vanya on 42nd Street" (for which she received an IFP Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress), "Iron Jawed Angels" (for HBO), "Bad Company," Robert Altman's "Kansas City," Henry Jaglom's "Last Summer in the Hamptons," Warren Leight's "The Night We Never Met," Anthony Minghella's "Mr.Wonderful," Alan Rudolph's "The Moderns" and Sydney Pollack's "Random Hearts."

On television Smith appears in a four-episode arc on the Showtime series "Weeds." She also appeared on the final season of NBC's "Crossing Jordan," and on such other series as "Six Feet Under," "Heist," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre Street," David Milch's "Big Apple," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "The Larry Sanders Show," "Law & Order," Showtime's "The Hunger" and TNT's "A Century of Women." Smith co-starred in the Coen Brothers' radio play "Theater of the New Ear" in NYC and London.

"Grey's Anatomy" stars Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Patrick Dempsey as Derek Shepherd, Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang, Katherine Heigl as Isobel "Izzie" Stevens, Justin Chambers as Alex Karev, T.R. Knight as George O'Malley, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, James Pickens, Jr. as Richard Webber, Sara Ramirez as Callie Torres, Eric Dane as Mark Sloan, Chyler Leigh as Lexie Grey and Brooke Smith as Erica Hahn.

"Grey's Anatomy" was created and is executive produced by Shonda Rhimes ("Introducing Dorothy Dandridge"). Betsy Beers ("Casanova"), Mark Gordon ("Saving Private Ryan"), Krista Vernoff ("Law & Order"), Rob Corn ("Chicago Hope") and Mark Wilding ("Jake: 2.0") are executive producers. "Grey's Anatomy" is an ABC Studios production.