Karla Souza has been cast as a lead in ABC’s new Grey’s Anatomy spinoff set in West Texas. She will play Carolina “Lina” Hall, a haunted and cynical doctor in her 40s who runs a medical center in a small town.
The untitled series is the first actor announcement for the project, which is being developed by Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, Meg Marinis and Ellen Pompeo. That makes Souza the face of a franchise extension that has to sell a new setting without losing the template that built Grey’s Anatomy.
West Texas and Los Angeles
The show is described as an edgy drama about a team at a rural West Texas medical center, and it reunites Souza with Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers after How to Get Away with Murder. Souza also remains tied to the franchise’s TV production muscle through her recent work across multiple projects, including 56 Days and Day Shift.
The location choice is the bigger business move. In the Grey’s Anatomy franchise’s 23-year history, the new offshoot will be the first series to shoot outside Los Angeles, a break from the long-running California production pattern that has shaped the brand’s television footprint.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Deadline reported last week that the untitled series now calls Albuquerque, New Mexico home, even though the story is set in West Texas. That split between setting and production base is the practical compromise here: the script points west Texas, while the production pipeline points to New Mexico.
Production is expected to begin in early 2027, around February or March, with a premiere targeted for the 2027-28 season. The full cast and title still have not been announced, so Souza’s casting is doing the heavy lifting for now; it is the first clear signal of what this spinoff will actually look like once cameras start rolling.
Shondaland’s next test
Souza arrives with franchise credibility. She is best known for playing Laurel opposite Viola Davis in How to Get Away with Murder, and she recently received two International Emmy Awards for producing and starring in Dive, also called La Caida, for Prime Video.
For ABC and 20th Television, the immediate question is no longer whether the spinoff exists, but whether this first casting choice can carry a series that is still untitled, still assembling its ensemble, and still moving toward a 2027 start. The answer will come from whether the show can turn a West Texas setting into a fresh franchise lane without losing the network identity that made Grey’s Anatomy durable in the first place.
