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Her first major television appearance was in 1997, when she appeared on The Drew Carey Show as Carey's character's girlfriend Nicki. She wore a fatsuit in some episodes of the show, as the Nicki character was a formerly obese woman who lost weight & slowly started to gain it back. She went on to portray Carol Nelson in HBO's The Mind of the Married Man television series, and played Norm MacDonald's romantic interest in the sitcom "The Norm Show". Walsh also made a notable guest appearance on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Mimosa, a transsexual. She sometimes appeared in sketches on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. She had a recurring role on Karen Sisco as Detective Marley Novak in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, she was cast in the ABC hit, Grey's Anatomy, as Dr. Addison Montgomery, the estranged spouse of Derek Shepherd ("Dr. McDreamy", played by Patrick Dempsey). The role of Addison was originally conceived as a short-term role,(five episodes) but audience response to Walsh, and to the Derek/Meredith/Addison triangle, convinced series creator Shonda Rhimes to expand the role and make Walsh a series regular. As she noted in an interview she's "The house guest who never leaves" referring to her extended role on both Grey's Anatomy & The Drew Carry Show. It was announced in February 2007 that Walsh and the character of Addison will be in a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy that will begin airing in autumn 2007. Taye Diggs , Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Chris Lowell and Audra McDonald have been cast in the spin-off, which has been given the name Private Practice. (wikipedia.org)