Actor and Salisbury native Kevin Carroll will be appearing on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” Thursday night.

It will be Carroll’s first appearance on the popular series, a medical drama, that’s been running since 2005.

In the episode, titled “Where Do We Go From Here,” Carroll plays a father who has to come to grips with an event that makes him question how much time he divides between family and work.

Carroll got the part through an audition and said the episode was filmed in November.

“It’s great to work with these guys,” he said about the cast and crew, “It’s like a well-oiled machine.”

Carroll, 45, does most of his work on the stage. He’s been in several Broadway and off-Broadway productions over the years — his acting career began in the early 1990s. He has a master’s degree in theater from New York University.

Carroll said working for a TV show is a much faster pace than acting on the stage.

“We didn’t get the script until the night before” the shoot, he said, adding that for stage plays the cast will rehearse for weeks.

But for TV, it’s “Lights. Camera. Action,” he said.

Carroll said he’s been back and forth between New York and California. He goes where the work is.

“You know, as an actor, it’s always up and down,” so being a part of a show like Grey’s Anatomy is special, he said.

Carroll said his goal is to land a regular role on a quality show that reflects the human condition.

He said he spent a good amount of time back home in Salisbury last year. His father, Kenneth Carroll, passed away last January, and his brother recently had a child.

He said he enjoys coming home, seeing old friends and visiting family.

Earlier his month, he was in Miami, Florida, working with aspiring actors at the National YoungArts program. His mother, Mae Carroll was with him.

He said it’s great working with young actors and seeing the incredible talent they have.

“It makes you go back and revisit the basics of the craft,” he said.

Carroll graduated from Salisbury High School in 1987. In 2009, he won an Obie Award for sustained excellence in performance for his role in a play called “Home.”

He has appeared in episodes of “Law and Order” and has had roles in several films including “Being John Malkovich” and 2002’s “Paid in Full.”

Thursday’s episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” airs at 8 p.m.

Contact Reporter David Purtell at 704-797-4264.