Fans of American TV series have much to thank Shonda Rhimes for. The TV producer and screenwriter has given the world many of the most popular and memorable TV series — including Grey's Anatomy and Bridgerton. Rhimes has shaped and reshaped American television for the past 20 years with complex storylines and diverse characters. Speaking to Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Rhimes said: "Everybody [in my shows] gets to be a three-dimensional person. Everybody gets to be fulfilled."
The cultural power of her pen prompted Time magazine to name Rhimes among the world's 100 most influential people in 2021. The 52-year-old was also the first Black woman to create and produce a global top-ten series (Grey's Anatomy), which is now in its 19th season, and the first woman to be responsible for three TV series with more than 100 episodes each (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal).
Actress Mindy Kaling has worked with Rhimes and says: "You feel like you will be left out of a major cultural moment if you miss a single episode. It's incredibly rare to make a show people love. It's rarer still to make a show people need to see. And yet, she keeps doing it."
From network to Netflix
For over a decade, Rhimes's creative home was the TV network ABC. But by the mid-2010s, as a single mother of three and under contract to produce about 70 episodes a year, she told The Hollywood Reporter that she was feeling burned out and creatively restrained. "I felt like I'd been pushing the same ball up the same hill in the exact same way for a really long time."
So, in 2017, Rhimes accepted a lucrative deal from Netflix, which was extended in 2021 and is said to be worth $400 million. One of the early results was the megahit Bridgerton, the first season of which was watched by about 82 million viewers, making it one of Netflix's most successful series.
Despite all her success as a producer, Rhimes describes herself first and foremost as a writer. Born in Chicago, she studied English and film studies at the prestigious Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, and then screenwriting at the University of Southern California. In 2015, she published a memoir, called Year of Yes.
At the heart of her empire is her production company, Shondaland, which she started in 2005 — the year Grey's Anatomy began. Based in Los Angeles, the company employs about 50 people and has expanded into digital media, with a series of podcasts on its website, shondaland.com. And there's much more to come from Rhimes, including a new Netflix series, called Notes on Love, and a second memoir, about her life as a single parent.