Chyler Leigh

Drug addiction and recovery At age 16, Leigh met 20-year-old Nathan West, when they both attended auditions for the pilot of Saving Graces, an unsuccessful series on The WB. They began a relationship and Leigh left home to move in with West. Leigh said they were "broken", both having had troubled family lives and difficult upbringings. In 2002, Leigh was cast in two short-lived TV series: Girls Club, in which she played lawyer Sarah Mickle, and That '80s Show, playing punk rocker June Tuesday. She then became a series regular on the ABC legal drama The Practice, but was let go at the end of the season due to budget cuts. She joined the cast of Reunion in September 2005.

In Grey's Anatomy, Leigh first appeared as a woman in Joe's bar who was noticed by Derek Shepherd during the final two episodes of the third season, and her character is later revealed to be Lexie Grey, the younger half-sister of the titular character. Leigh was made an official series regular for season four and remained so until the eighth-season finale, as Leigh chose to depart from the show after five years to spend more time with her family. She makes music with her husband Nathan West (East of Eli), under the name "WestLeigh". They have performed covers and original songs. In 2015 for their 13th anniversary, they wrote "Love Lit the Sky". On Valentine's Day 2017, they released the single "Nowhere". Leigh has taken part in several of her husband's tours. On June 18, 2017, a single "Spirit of Samba" by Laurent Voulzy was released featuring Leigh, Nina Miranda, Luisa Maita, and Eloisia; in France, it reached the 99th position on the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique chart.

From 2015 to 2021, Leigh starred in the CBS/The CW DC Comics television series Supergirl as Alex Danvers, the elder adopted sister of the titular character and a scientist and government agent at the Department of Extranormal Operations. She reprised the role on Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow during crossover events Crisis on Earth-X, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and "Armageddon". She made her directorial debut with the season six episode "Prom Again!". In April 2021, Leigh returned to Grey's Anatomy for the episode "Breathe". Since 2023, she has co-starred in the Hallmark Channel series The Way Home with Andie MacDowell.

Personal life

In 2002, Leigh married fellow actor Nathan West in Alaska. The couple worked together in 2000 on the television series 7th Heaven on The WB and The CW, playing Mary Camden's (Jessica Biel) troubled friends Frankie and Johnnie. Leigh and West have three children–a son and two daughters (born in 2003, and 2009 ). In 2026, Chyler revealed that she and Nathan had split.

Leigh was a Christian and credited her faith in 2007-2008 and a "really awesome church" with giving her husband and her "a reason to live". Her current beliefs held are that there is a Source “Witchy WooWoo and all.” She supports The Thirst Project, a nonprofit organization in America, which aims to bring safe drinking water to communities around the world. In 2019, Leigh revealed that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder a decade earlier. In mid 2020, she published a statement on the Create Change website, an advocacy website she cofounded, in which she expressed an emotional connection with her Supergirl character's coming-out scene. Several websites and media outlets, especially those connected with LGBTQ advocacy, interpreted the statement as Leigh's own coming-out about her sexuality.

Leigh and her family were living in Los Angeles including in Sherman Oaks, During mid-2020, Leigh contracted COVID-19; she described her experience in an article published to createchange.me on October 14, 2020:I lost about a month's worth of time, laying in bed, waving to my children in the hallway with a mask on so they didn't see how sick I was from COVID-19. Almost "game-over" sick. The only time I had with my husband was spent six feet apart on our bedroom balcony in the morning for a soul-lifting hour to just be with one another or when he donned his mask coming in the room to take care of me, bravely bringing food and Gatorade (which half the time I wasn't able to taste). Golden moments in the midst of darkness. I will say I'm incredibly lucky, though. By the grace of God, no one else got sick... although there were a few occasions it almost seemed necessary, I didn't have to go to the hospital. I think getting through a sickness of that magnitude definitely earned me a level up. My body defeated what I thought was impossible and I got a proper restart.

Filmography

Films

Television + Year Title Role

1996 Hall Pass Herself Co-host

Saving Graces Grace Smith Unsold television pilot Safe Harbor Jamie Martin Main role; 10 episodes

M.Y.O.B. Episode: "Bad Seed" 7th Heaven Frankie 3 episodes Wilder Days Rip Unsold television pilot

That '80s Show June Tuesday Main role; 13 episodes Girls Club Sarah Mickle Main role; 9 episodes 2003 data-sort-value="Practice, The" | The Practice Claire Wyatt Main role (season 7); 22 episodes 2004 North Shore Kate Spangler Episode: "My Boyfriend's Back" 2005 Rocky Point Cassie Flynn Unsold television pilot 2005–2006 Reunion Carla Noll Main role; 13 episodes 2007–2012, 2021 Grey's Anatomy

Guest role (season 3); Main role (seasons 4–8); special guest (season 17); 115 episodes 2012 Private Practice Episode: "You Break My Heart" (Season 5) 2014 Taxi Brooklyn Detective Caitlyn "Cat" Sullivan Main role; 12 episodes 2015–2021 Supergirl

Main role; 126 episodes; also director: "Prom Again" 2017 Arrow Episode: "Crisis on Earth-X" 2017, 2021 data-sort-value="Flash, The" | The Flash Episodes: "Crisis on Earth-X", "Armageddon, Parts 2-4" 2017, 2020 Legends of Tomorrow Episodes: "Crisis on Earth-X", "Crisis on Infinite Earths" 2023–2026 data-sort-value="Way Home, The" | The Way Home Katherine "Kat" Landry Dhawan Main role; 40 episodes; also executive producer

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Work Result Ref 2000 Young Artist Awards Best Performance in a TV Series - Young Ensemble Safe Harbor (shared with cast) 2002 Young Hollywood Awards Exciting New Face-Female Herself 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series