When Jessica Capshaw ’98 first toured Brown, the “9-1-1: Nashville” star — best known for her iconic role as Arizona Robbins in “Grey’s Anatomy” — was met with horrible weather on campus.
“I got to Brown on a really super icky, rainy day,” Capshaw said. “And I still loved it.”
Capshaw already knew she wanted to pursue acting when she arrived at Brown. But she didn’t jump straight into the theater department — Capshaw was an English concentrator, and like many students, she had been drawn to Brown by the Open Curriculum.
“I just took everything,” she said, recalling courses she took in the Departments of Modern Culture and Media and of Art History. Once, she took a science class for a cute boy.
“I just ate it in that class, and not ate it in a good way,” Capshaw said.
During her first year, she joined the crew team — a venture into athleticism that lasted only a year, but one that led Capshaw to one of her closest friends. Jonathan Frank ’98 met Capshaw in a stairwell at Marston Boathouse — the official facility for Brown’s crew teams.
“She was down-to-earth, funny, sharp and quick-witted, with a warmth that drew people in,” Frank wrote in an email to The Herald. Frank and Capshaw have now been friends for 32 years, dating during their junior and senior years at Brown and remaining close friends after the relationship ended.
“Jessica had a real presence on campus, but that only told part of the story,” Frank wrote. “What made her so compelling was how completely she defied whatever assumptions people might have made about her.”
Capshaw “took her work seriously, but never in a way that felt heavy,” Frank added.
Elizabeth Shaffer ’98, who is also one of Capshaw’s closest friends, shared similar sentiments. “Being around her just felt good,” Shaffer wrote in an email to the Herald. “Jessica has always had a strong moral compass, a clear sense of purpose and real conviction in her values.”
“And, importantly, she taught me how to pluck my eyebrows and apply eyeliner, essential life skills in the late 90s,” Shaffer wrote.
By the time she graduated, Capshaw was ready to launch her career. After years of auditioning through college, she eyed theatre and independent film — as she did not have experience acting on television, it “wasn’t even on (her) radar,” she said.
Capshaw cycled through many pilot seasons, sometimes working on shows that got picked up, sometimes on projects that did not take off. She starred in the 2001 horror movie “Valentine” and spent a couple years playing a lawyer on “The Practice.” During her time working on “The Practice,” she heard buzz about the pilot for a new show called “Surgeons.” The next year, it aired as “Grey’s Anatomy.”
“I remember watching it just religiously,” she said.
Two weeks after her first son was born in 2007, her agent called her about a role on “Grey’s Anatomy.” Capshaw auditioned for two different parts in the span of a year, but both went to different actresses.
“And then out of nowhere, they were like, Shonda has an idea for you,” she said, referring to the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes. “I got hired for a three-episode arc as a plucky, pediatrics, know-it-all surgeon, and I came in for three episodes, and then I just stayed for 10 years.”
Reflecting on her time on “Grey’s Anatomy” as the iconic and beloved Arizona Robbins, Capshaw said she “felt like the luckiest girl on earth.”
She felt a large responsibility in portraying Arizona Robbins because, at that time on network television, “there were no series-regular … characters that were gay.” On a show centered around character relationships, she wanted to make sure that Arizona and her on-screen partner “could match the other couples with people rooting for them.”
“It was clear she had the talent, drive and presence, so none of her success feels surprising, but it has still been amazing to see it all unfold,” Shaffer wrote. “What stands out most is how grounded she has stayed through it all.”
Capshaw feels as though her role is still a part of her.
“I watch the show and I see something that I created, but I also know that parts of the creation are in me all the time,” she said. “So carrying her or reminding people of her, I think will be something that I do for the rest of my life and I think that it’s a privilege.”
Capshaw left “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2018, and after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, her family moved across the country. Capshaw sent out many audition tapes to no avail, which was “heartbreaking and hard and definitely makes you feel like, ‘Am I supposed to be doing this? Does this business still want me to be doing this? Is there a place for me?’”
When she landed the part of Blythe Hart on “9-1-1: Nashville,” it felt “right,” she said. During the show’s first season, she was “excited” and appreciative “to be back into doing all the things that (she) loved so much.”
“9-1-1: Nashville” premiered in October 2025 on the American Broadcasting Company and was renewed for a second season.
For Brown students seeking careers in acting or otherwise, Capshaw says that, at times when challenges feel too extreme, “you’ve got to pivot. And that doesn’t mean leaving the job, but it might mean looking at it a different way.”
“Nothing is a foregone conclusion,” she said. “Do it until it feels right … like you’re getting it right, you’re honoring what it is that you love to do.”
Rebecca Goodman is a university news senior staff writer covering career and alumni. She is a junior from Cambridge, MA, studying English. Outside of writing, you can find her at the Avon or in the basement of the Rock.
