Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Lynn Rhimes (born January 13, 1970) is an American television producer and screenwriter, and founder of the production company Shondaland.

Her mother attended college while raising their six children and earned a PhD in educational administration in 1991.

At Dartmouth College, she majored in English and film studies and earned her bachelor's degree in 1991.

At Dartmouth, she joined the Black Underground Theater Association.

She divided her time between directing and performing in student productions, and writing fiction.

She also wrote for the college newspaper.

After college, she relocated to San Francisco with an older sibling and worked in advertising at McCann Erickson.

She subsequently moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California and study screenwriting.

Ranked at the top of her USC class, Rhimes earned the Gary Rosenberg Writing Fellowship.

She obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

While at USC, Rhimes was hired as an intern by Debra Martin Chase.

Rhimes credits her early success, in part, to mentors such as Chase, a prominent African-American producer.

Chase later again served as a mentor to Rhimes on The Princess Diaries 2.

Rhimes also worked at Denzel Washington's company, Mundy Lane Entertainment.

After graduation, Rhimes was an unemployed scriptwriter in Hollywood.

To make ends meet, Rhimes worked at a variety of day jobs, including as an office administrator and then a counselor at a job center that taught job skills to people with housing instability and mental illness.

During this period, Rhimes worked as research director on the documentary Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream (1995), which won the 1995 Peabody Award.

In 1998, Rhimes made a short film, Blossoms and Veils, starring Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeffrey Wright, which is her only credit as a film director.

New Line Cinema purchased a feature script of hers.

Rhimes received an assignment to co-write the HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), which earned numerous awards for its star, Halle Berry.

In 2001, Rhimes wrote Crossroads, the debut film of pop singer Britney Spears.

Despite being panned by critics, the film grossed more than $60 million worldwide.

Rhimes next worked on writing Disney's sequel to its popular movie The Princess Diaries (2001).

In 2003, Rhimes wrote her first TV pilot for ABC about young female war correspondents, but the network turned it down.

Although The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) did not score as well at the box office, Rhimes later said that she treasured the experience, if only for the opportunity to work with its star, Julie Andrews.

Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Rhimes became known as the showrunner—creator, head writer, and executive producer—of the medical drama Grey's Anatomy (2005–present), its spin-off Private Practice (2007–2013) and the political thriller Scandal (2012–2018), becoming the first woman to create three television dramas that have achieved the 100 episode milestone.

In 2007, 2013, and 2021, Rhimes was named by Time to the Time 100, their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

As of 2023, she is one of the richest women entertainers in America, with a net worth of $250 million.

Her father, who holds an MBA, became chief information officer (CIO) at the University of Southern California, serving until 2013.

Rhimes lived in Park Forest South (now University Park, Illinois), with her two older brothers and three older sisters.

She has said she exhibited an early affinity for storytelling.

While in high school, she served as a hospital volunteer, which inspired an interest in hospital environments.

Raised Catholic, Rhimes attended Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

She has served as the executive producer of the ABC thriller series How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020), and the Netflix period series Bridgerton (2020–present) and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023), and drama Inventing Anna (2022).

She has been nominated five times for a Primetime Emmy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, and received special honors at the British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards.

In 2015, she published her first book, a memoir, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person.

In 2016, Rhimes formed The Rhimes Family Foundation whose mission is to support arts, education, and activism.

Rhimes was born in Chicago, Illinois, as the youngest of six children of Vera P. (née Cain), a college professor, and Ilee Rhimes Jr., a university administrator.

In 2017, she was inducted as a Chair's Appointee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences‘s executive committee.

She is also part of the USC Film Concil and the Writers Guild Inclusion Committee.