Celebrity crush: Sarah Drew

Here's this week's new entry, featuring an actress who is now a full-time cast member on Grey's Anatomy and has also appeared on Everwood and Mad Men, among other things. Amazon and iTunes links are at the bottom; any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

(As with some others, if a show is heavily serialized -- such as Glee or Mad Men -- I'm going to include a link to buy the whole season, not just individual episodes, because one episode seen by itself might leave you lost.)

Name: Sarah Drew
Hometown: Born in Virginia and raised on New York's Long Island, according to her Wikipedia profile. Her dad's a Presbyterian minister in New York City, her mom a science teacher with a Ph.D.
Best Known For: Drew's best known for playing Dr. April Kepner on Grey's Anatomy, in a recurring role in season six and as a regular starting with this year's season seven; her character's best friend was played by fellow celebrity crush Nora Zehetner. She was a regular in the latter two seasons of Everwood (as the best friend of the character played by fellow celebrity crush Emily VanCamp) and appeared in a handful of Mad Men episodes as the childhood friend and wife of closeted gay ad man Sal Romano.

She also played Suzy Pepper, the glee club teacher's former student and stalker, in a couple of episodes of Glee season one and appeared in the movie Radio with Cuba Gooding Jr. In fact, looking at her TV credits below, as she approaches 30 she has a record that shows her to be one of the hardest-working "It's that girl" talents in Hollywood.

Humble Beginnings: Drew got a bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Virginia before heading to Los Angeles. But she was already acting in high school, doing voice work for the animated series Daria and related TV movies (which are included below among the TV seasons), and she's performed on stage on Broadway and in London.

She's also appeared in tons of TV shows, usually in one- or two-episode guest spots. Her work on Private Practice as a patient who appeared in multiple episodes no doubt helped ease her into Grey's Anatomy.

Obligatory Edgy Stuff (Or Lack Thereof): The fact she's a minister's daughter and tends to play relatively clean-cut characters who usually stay fully dressed is kinda unusual in and of itself.
Family Ties: Her cousin Benjamin Mackenzie starred on The O.C. before going on to the police drama Southland. I don't know of any time they've worked together, but it's a neat bit of trivia.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: She plays the good girl (and occasionally the good girl despite herself) quite well, but she's also played characters a little more devious in some of her appearances on crime dramas. Plus, she's got the whole girl-you-wish-lived-next-door look going for her.

And while Everwood was often a very emotionally wrought show, her character of Hannah (whose background was as tragic as anyone else's) still occasionally provided some of the show's funniest moments. Given her character's inappropriate crush on the married McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy, she may continue to do so this fall.

TV credits: Grey's Anatomy, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * Miami Medical, season 1: "What Lies Beneath" (Amazon | iTunes) * Supernatural, season 5: "Swap Meat" (Amazon | iTunes) * Grey's Anatomy, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Glee, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Mad Men, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * In Plain Sight, season 2: "Aguna Matatala" (Amazon | iTunes) * Numb3rs, season 5: "Angels and Devils" (Amazon | iTunes) * Castle, season 1: "Nanny McDead" (Amazon | iTunes) * Private Practice, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Mad Men, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Privileged, season 1: "All About Insecurities" (Amazon | iTunes) * Medium, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Law and Order: SVU, season 8: "Responsible" (Amazon | iTunes) * Cold Case, season 4: "Static" (Amazon | iTunes) * Everwood, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Everwood, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Wonderfalls, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Daria, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Daria, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Daria, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Daria, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Daria, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes)
Film credits: Tug (Amazon | iTunes) * Inside the Box (Amazon | iTunes) * Hallmark Hall of Fame: Front of the Class (Amazon | iTunes) * Wieners (Amazon | iTunes) * The Violin (Amazon | iTunes) * American Pastime (Amazon | iTunes) * Reinventing the Wheelers (Amazon | iTunes) * Locked Upstairs (Amazon | iTunes) * The Baxter (Amazon | iTunes) * Radio (Amazon | iTunes)