[ aubrey plaza, ciswoman, she/her/hers ]ย โย spotted in the streets of brooklyn, itโsย JOHANNA "JO" RAMOS. they have lived in the city forย SIX MONTHS, working as aย DOCTOR PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AT COLUMBIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. theย 40ย year old will probably be seen aroundย PARK SLOPEย a lot, seeing as thatโs where they live.ย people say they can be a bitย SELF-CENTEREDย andย CLOSED-OFF, but friends know them to beย HARD-WORKINGย andย AMBITIOUS. you know for sure youโve found them when youโve come acrossย LATE NIGHTS, CIGARETTE SMOKE, AND TRUE-CRIME PODCASTS. welcome to brooklyn, itโs been waiting for you! (tw for some internalized homophobia, parental death/cancer below!!!)
Basics.
full name:ย johanna marie ramos nicknames:ย pretty much everyone just calls her jo. joey was her dad's nickname for her, so she's a bit leery of it now (but some closest to her can probably get away with it) gender/pronouns:ย cisfemale/she/her/hers sexual orientation:ย she's like super gay, dude. birthday:ย october 28th. star sign:ย scorpios are known to be brave, ambitious, direct...emotional and temperamental. occupation:ย lecturer/professor at columbia university roy and diana vagelos college of physicians and surgeons. specifically, she teaches 1st and 2nd year medical students anatomy. she is a physician, specializing in general surgery, but not currently practicing. character inspo: like if addison montgomery (grey's anatomy) & dr. gregory house (house md) had a baby
Backstory.
jo was an accident. a product of a prom night fiasco, jo was born to a teen not ready to be a mom...and her dad. her parents never married, but they tried. it turned out motherhood wasn't for her mom and she skipped town before jo was six months old, leaving her in the very capable hands of her father, joseph.
jo grew up a bit of a daddy's girl. her father didn't know how to braid hair or bake cookies, but he did his best. and along with their extended family, jo grew up healthy and happy. she played sports and did girl scouts, danced ballet and tried the piano for two months, and her dad was there for all of it.
her hometown in a new york suburb was small. everyone knew everyone else. in some ways, that was a good thing. jo had a plethora of neighbors and family friends willing to pick up the slack when her father pulled a double at the local automobile factory. but sometimes, it wasn't such a good thing. like when she was twelve and she admitted to liking another girl for the first time and her grandmother heard the rumor at church, of all places, and nearly disowned her.
she learned fairly quickly that in her catholic household, it was best to just...not say gay. so she didn't. she buried that part of her deep down, figuring she just hadn't found the right guy yet. because she couldn't stand the thought that her dad might not look at her the same way if he knew the truth.
jo and had a really special childhood best friend, attached at the hip, and largely considered a package deal by their classmates. at first, jo thought it was just the kind of best friendship you saw in movies or read about in books, but as they got older, it got harder and harder to deny what she felt for her. so she buried it.
she was a junior in high school when her best friend kissed her for the first time. after years of trying to fit herself into a certain box, jo finally felt that spark she'd been dreaming about since she was a little kid. it changed everything for her. she planned to go to college with her best friend away from their stifling hometown, but in-state. she was going to be brave. she was going to risk everything.
but then something happened. plans changed. her best friend changed their mind or maybe jo did. either way, they ended up going to separate schools across the country from one another. her friend was going to stay in their hometown, the town jo knew she couldn't be fully herself in. so she ran.
initially, jo was going to study business in college. it seemed like a solid, no-nonsense plan that left a lot of doors open...but plans changed when she got a middle-of-the-night call from her grandmother telling her that her dad was sick.
it turned out that jo's father had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. she dropped everything to come home and care for the man who raised her like he had when she was a kid. his life expectancy was one year due to the spread. he made it eight months. it was the worst eight months of jo's life.
but it did spur her on towards pursuing a career in medicine. the doctors who'd cared for her dad were some of the kindest, most compassionate people jo has ever met. so she returned to UCLA with a new plan. she got her bachelor's degree in biology and went on to attend UCLA's david geffen school of medicine.
at first, jo thought that she'd pursue hematology/oncology after medical school, but during her third year rotations she decided that surgery was actually a better fit for her. she thrived in the operating room. and she got to save lives. win/win.
she completed her residency in surgery in santa clara, california...a year late. she had to take time off for the birth of her son when she was twenty-eight.
she met jake's father as an intern. he was a senior internal medicine resident, and then an attending physician, at kaiser permanente. once again, jo found herself falling into the expectations set for her. she didn't love him, not really, but after a particularly brutal 48 hour call and a few too many dinks, they'd hooked up. nine months later, they welcomed their son. twelve months later, they got married, because that was just what you did.
her husband is a good guy, but he's also a workaholic. he expected jo to become a stay-at-home mom once they had their son, and that just was not happening. jake had a nanny, but he also had two loving (if busy) parents. he's very well adjusted.
the combination of both halves of the marriage being workaholics and jo being, well, gay meant that their marriage has been on the rocks for quite some time. jo didn't return to her hometown often, but when she did, it was oftentimes without her husband and jake. they were short trips.
jo's husband cheated on her. that was her excuse for the separation, anyway. jo herself had been cheating on him for years. she got good at hiding it, but she wasn't able to hide it when her husband caught her at his female best friend (and former college roommate's) hotel room.
now, jo's back in new york, albeit not in her tiny hometown upstate. she tells people she's back because her absentee mother showed back up in her life...only because she'd passed away, too.
apparently, jo's mom did give a shit about her enough to creep on her social media...and leave a fairly sizable inheritance for jake.
jo and her son are back in town. her estranged husband is still in california (for now). what could possibly go wrong?
connections.
someone bring me anna kendrick. i just think they'd be a hilarious duo as pretty much whatever context, but think of them in "mike and dave need wedding dates".
or like. bring me kristen stewart. because why were they not endgame in happiest season, exactly???
i need the meredith grey to her cristina yang.
and the shauna to jo's tai. a little unhinged but supportive yk?
or! bring me the van to jo's tai!
jake's twelve now, but since they're fairly new to nyc, maybe some of the twenty-somethings want some extra cash by babysitting???
she probably needs a beard because her grandmother is still kicking and has no fucking clue she's as gay as they day is long. applications are open.
if anyone wants to bring jo's hubby i picture him as a pretty decent guy but just kind of a workaholic. it's totally up to you whether he knew that jo had been having trysts for about five years now or if he only found out because of the best friend ordeal. i think in jo's mind they're separated but she probably bailed fairly quickly so like...maybe they're not, actually.
...you could also bring said best friend who jo was probably honestly half in love with for real. female version of mcsteamy, for those so inclined.
