Grey's Anatomy: Meet New Cast Member Sophia Ali aka Dr. Dahlia Qadri

Since day one, Grey's Anatomy has had a diverse cast with African American, Asian and Caucasian cast members. But the addition of Sophia Ali as Dr. Dahlia Qadri gives the ABC medical drama an element it hasn't had heretofore, its first Muslim, female intern and one who wears a hijab at that.

"I think that this is the perfect show for having a Muslim character in a hijab," says the former Famous In Love star. "It is never about the hijab. Dahlia is a surgeon first and she's intelligent, educated and strong, and her problems are centered around the issues that she has with her patients and other doctors. It's refreshing that she's such an impactful character, but none of the cultural differences is ever addressed or an issue. It's just about her being a person and a doctor."

At 23, the San Diego-born actress is still new to acting, so joining a show in its fourteenth season was a bit of a challenge for her and she admits to being "insanely nervous." Her previous experience had been working with other 20-year-olds on projects that were in their first or second season, or on movies where everyone was coming together for the first time.

"It is an interesting learning experience working with such established actors," Ali says. "A lot of the women on our show are inspiring because they've all got such great heads on their shoulders, such an amazing understanding of the industry and how it works, and the effects that it has on you. Normally, I don't really get a chance to learn from people like that. So, getting a chance to work with this cast and learning about their resilience and the respect that they have for each other and for themselves is so inspiring for me as a young actor."

What was it like for you to join the in season 14?

When I started, I thought this was going to be like any other job, but coming into this well-oiled machine where people have established their lives so strongly around what they're doing because it's so steady was a little bit of an adjustment for me. But not in a bad way.

It is a set that's known for not putting up with difficult people...

Exactly, and that's so awesome and important because we put up with so much from actors. I don't know when it happened, but sometimes actors can just develop this sense of entitlement, so working on that show has been really humbling. No matter what happens in my career, I never to want to be entitled or think that I deserve this because I don't. I'm extremely lucky and grateful and I feel like Grey's has taught me a lot of that.

Has Shonda Rhimes or Krista Vernoff talked to you at all about where your character is going? For example, this is being called the season of love. Will Dahlia make a love connection or get in on any of the interns' hijinks?

I don't know exactly where my character is going. I know that there are relationships being developed and friendships being developed and I know that she's had crushes. She's going to have natural qualms between her desires and her religious beliefs. It's totally normal and cool to show that, but I can't really say  if she's going to have any relationships.

She definitely is going to be coming up a lot more in the next bit of this season. We're going to get to see a lot more of her personality, her likes and her dislikes, her convictions, and who she crushes on.

There was that episode where Dahlia had to remove her hijab to save a life. Was that stressful for her?

I don't think it's stressful at all for her. She wears her hijab for so many other reasons other than a religious symbol. It empowers her and she likes the way it makes her look. It's more of a fashion head wrap garment that she wears. It's like girls in America wear a bra or they don't. It's open and so not a mandatory thing.

So in that episode, the way she sees it is like, "Oh, this person is dying and I have a wrap on my head and I can take it off and save their life." She would rather do that than wear it because that person is dying and that's more important. I think  it shows the true dynamic of what it means to wear a hijab.

Dahlia was at Alex and Jo's wedding with the other interns. I wondered do they make her the designated driver, assuming she doesn't drink.

She does not drink. No. Yeah. Probably. I'm sure they make her the designated driver. I'm sure that's her job. It's funny, too, because sometimes I'll show up to the bar and Dahlia doesn't drink, so I just chill there with them. That's so funny that that ran through your head like, "Oh, she's probably the designated driver," but that makes sense.

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You personally don't have a science background, so how are you dealing with the medical jargon and the procedures that you're supposed to know how to do?

I love it. I think its' so interesting. We get a cheat sheet for all the crazy medical terms that we have and it gives you the pronunciation and also the definition. I like to do my own research and learn about things that I'm talking about more fully so that I have a better grasp of it and I know better what I'm saying. Obviously, I'm nowhere near to having my MD, but I feel like it's teaching me a lot about random diseases and illnesses that would have never even been on my radar in the first place.

Then also randomly I'll remember something that I've learned on set in a real-life scenario. When someone was having an allergic reaction, I was like, "Oh, you know, Benadryl is an antihistamine, you can take that." It just came out of me. That's pretty common knowledge, but I knew that because of the show.

And you're not becoming a hypochondriac? You're not self-diagnosing things that maybe don't even exist?

No. I don't think so. It might have made me more aware of illnesses. I like to do this thing, and this is horrible, where I try and diagnosis whatever people are going through. I like to like tell them what's wrong with them. They're like, "Oh, I have stomach issues." I'll be like, "Oh, maybe you have celiac or Crohn's disease or something." Then they're like, "Well, Sophia, you're not a doctor. You don't know. Don't diagnose me." And I'm like, "Oh, you're right."

I don't have my MD. I keep forgetting it's fake. It's all fake. I'm, "Go see a real doctor. You probably don't have Crohn's disease. I'm so sorry."

A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, right?

It really can. It really can, especially if you immediately go to the worst thing possible.

Since you're one of the new interns, do the more established actors also step in and help you with how things are supposed to be?

Oh, absolutely. Not so much with medical terms because, even today -- and some of them have been doing it for 15 years -- there are still words that they don't know that I know for a fact they have said multiple times in other episodes. That's why there's doctors on set. But as far as working in that environment, they're all very comfortable, which isn't like anything I've ever experienced.

They've all been so accepting and kind and helpful with whatever I have going on. When I first started, actually my first day on set, Chandra Wilson said something to me like, don't let anything bother you. Just let it roll off your back and move on. Just focus on your craft. You're all that matters, something like that. That's not like a direct quote or anything, but at that time, I didn't really understand what she meant. Now after having been on the show for a while, I'm realizing that like there is a lot of stressful aspects to it.

They write as they go, so there is no guarantee that your storyline is going to continue and that is very stressful because I love being on the show. I know I'll be okay regardless of what happens, but I don't know what's going to happen with my character most of the time and a lot of the actors feel the same way. They know what I'm going through because they went through it in their beginning years, so then I finally like realized what she meant by that.

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.