“The Good Doctor” has added Kayla Cromer and Wavyy Jonez in recurring roles for the ABC medical drama’s final season.
Cromer will portray Charlene “Charlie” Lukaitis, while Jonez will play Dominick “Dom” Hubank. The pair are described as third-year medical students on their first rotation, “eager to learn, but raw and untested in the fast-paced world of St. Bonaventure’s Hospital.”
Charlie is excited for the rotation and chance to work with her hero, Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore). Similar to Murphy, she has autism spectrum disorder (as does the actress playing her). Lukaitis has idolized him since she first saw the viral video of him saving a boy’s life at the San Jose airport. Empowered and energetic, her passion for surgery may only be matched by her love for Taylor Swift.
Meanwhile, Dom is a gentle giant who was hoping this surgical rotation was just a box to check on his way to become the family doctor in his underserved community. But the former football player learns he isn’t as tough as he appears when he faints at the sight of blood. Too big to fail, Dom must overcome his newly discovered hemophobia — and will need his peer and friend Charlie to do so.
Cromer and Jonez’s characters will first appear in the second episode of Season 7, titled “Skin in the Game,” which is written by Garrett Lerner & Nathalie Touboul and directed by Highmore.
Cromer was the first person with autism to play an autistic character in a series regular role on American television in “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay,” the Freeform comedy created by Josh Thomas. She played the role of Matilda, the blunt and musically gifted autistic older sister. On Nickelodeon’s animated series “Monster High,” based on Mattel’s fashion doll franchise of the same name, Cromer also voices the Generation 3 character of Twyla, the shy autistic daughter of the Boogeyman.
Jonez’s credits include USA’s limited series “Unsolved,” where he portrayed the Notorious B.I.G. opposite Josh Duhamel. He’s also been in the Spike Lee-produced feature “See You Yesterday” on Netflix, “Reprisal” on Hulu, “Dickinson” on Apple TV+, “Young Rock” on NBC, “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” on Hulu and the independent features “The Madness” and “The Adults” opposite Michael Cera. He can currently be seen in “Run Nixon,” an AMC film.
Cromer is repped by KMR Talent and Echo Lake Entertainment, while Jonez is repped by Entertainment 360 and Gersh.
In addition to Highmore, “The Good Doctor” stars Richard Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman, Fiona Gubelmann as Dr. Morgan Reznick, Will Yun Lee as Dr. Alex Park, Christina Chang as Dr. Audrey Lim, Paige Spara as Lea Dilallo, Bria Samoné Henderson as Dr. Jordan Allen, Noah Galvin as Dr. Asher Wolke and Chuku Modu as Dr. Jared Kalu.
The series, which comes from Sony Pictures Television and ABC Signature, is executive produced by co-showrunners David Shore and Liz Friedman alongside Highmore, Daniel Dae Kim, Erin Gunn, Thomas L. Moran, David Hoselton, Peter Blake, Jessica Grasl, Garrett Lerner, Mike Listo, David Kim and Sebastian Lee.
“The Good Doctor” premieres Feb. 20, with new episodes airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Episodes will be available on demand and next day on Hulu following their premieres.
