Shondaland, ABC Studios, Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Shonda Rhimes is the trailblazing, game changing showrunner, a prolific writer, producer and director, the first African American woman to create and executive produce a Top 10 network series—the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, twice named as TIME Magazine’s 100 list of the most influential people and Fortune Magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business,” New York Times Best Selling author for her first book, a memoir, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person, and in 2017, entered a multi-year mega-deal with Netflix, making her the highest paid showrunner in television history.
Born on January 13, 1970, in the suburban University Park area of Illinois, Shonda is the youngest of six siblings. Her father is a university administrator and her mother a college professor who went on to earn two doctorates, and later served as the inspiration for beloved Grey's Anatomy character, Miranda Bailey. Rhimes received her BA from Dartmouth College in English literature and creative writing. After a short stint in advertising, she enrolled in the writing for screen and television program at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, earning an MFA.
After grad school, Rhimes’ first screenplay, Human Seeking Same, about an older Black woman looking for love in the personals, never got made but led to her writing Crossroads (2002), The Princess Diaries 2 (2004), and co-writing HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) whose critical acclaim elevated Rhimes' status in the business.
After she adopted her daughter Harper Lee, Rhimes spent a lot of time watching her infant and watching television which prompted her to try writing a TV pilot. The result was Grey’s Anatomy (2005-present), influenced by her fascination in watching real-life surgeries on television that served as a call back her time working as a candy striper in her adolescence. Grey’s Anatomy premiered in 2005 as a 9-episode mid-season replacement. Seriously?? Seriously. 18 seasons, several awards, multitude of accolades, one spin-off, and a half dozen additional shows later, few people have changed the face of television over the last decade more than Shonda Rhimes. She has developed shows in which Black women fill leading roles and equal weight is given to characters who are beyond traditional TV conventions. She is a titan among mere mortals.
In August of 2017 Rhimes left her creative hub of 15 years for a first-of-its-kind, nine-figure mega-deal at Netflix under which all of her future productions would be Netflix Originals. She’s working on over a dozen projects for the streaming network, the first installments are a Debbie Allen documentary Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker (2020), and the adaptation of the Julia Quinn’s book series, Bridgerton (2020-present). However, neither of those are her creation, that would be the hotly anticipated Inventing Anna, about the infamous SoHo con artist who scammed New York elites, Anna Sorokin, alias Anna Delvey. According to Variety, additional titles include Pico & Sepulveda, set in 1840s Los Angeles, and an adaptation of the Kate Andersen Brower novel The Residence, about White House support staffers.
While the usually prolific Rhimes has taken time to craft fresh stories, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos confidently shared with The Hollywood Reporter, “Shonda knows how to entertain, knows how to get people thinking and knows how to craft a story better than anyone I’ve ever dealt with.” He also revealed that Grey’s has logged the most viewing hours of any single show on Netflix.
She’s clearly not done making history as one of the most successful showrunners ever, and I am certainly not done watching.
Shondaland, the name of Rhimes's production company, has a quickly growing roster of all the shows she has produced so far:
Grey's Anatomy (2005–present)
Private Practice (2007–2013)
Off the Map (2011)
Scandal (2012–2018)
How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020)
The Catch (2016–2017)
Still Star-Crossed (2017)
For the People (2018–2019)
Station 19 (2018–present)
Bridgerton (2020–present)
Her Advice to Writers:
If you want her advice, watch her Masterclass, in the meantime, some quotes from the legend herself:
“Why do reporters always say writers were ‘lured’ [into deals]? Like we’re children following a trail of candy. I created a $2B+ revenue stream for a major corp. with my imagination. I do not follow trails of candy. I am the candy.” – this is my new mantra, ‘I am the candy.’ @ShondaRhimes Tweet, requoted The Hollywood Reporter
“I am the highest-paid showrunner in television.” The Hollywood Reporter Mic drop!!! QUEEN!!
“When asked how we might continue to build a television landscape that more closely reflects the diversity of the real world, Rhimes’ answer is simple. “It’s who is telling the stories,” she says, “because the people telling the stories are the people deciding who you see onscreen, they’re the people who are deciding who are in the writers rooms, they’re the people deciding on the crew.” The onus, she says, is on her and her colleagues to raise a generation of showrunners to fill those screens, those writers rooms and those crews with storytellers who reflect the full range of human experience.” TIME