Shonda Rhimes is an American screenwriter, director, and producer.
Rhimes is best known as the creator, head writer, executive producer and showrunner
of the medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy, its spin-off Private Practice and
political thriller series Scandal.
In May 2007, Rhimes was named one of TIME magazine's 100 people who help shape the world.
Rhimes was an executive producer for the medical drama series Off the Map which aired on ABC
from January 12, 2011 to April 6, 2011.
Rhimes' new show for ABC is the legal series How to Get Away with Murder, which will debut
in the 2014-15 season.
Early life Rhimes was born in Chicago, Illinois, the
daughter of a university administrator and a college professor.
She lived in Park Forest South, Illinois, with two older brothers and three older sisters.
She has said she exhibited an early affinity for storytelling and that her time spent as
a hospital volunteer while in high school sparked an interest in hospital environments.
Rhimes attended Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois, before enrolling
at Dartmouth College, where she earned her bachelor's degree.
At Dartmouth, she divided her time between fiction, and directing and performing in student
productions.
After college, she relocated to San Francisco with an older sibling and obtained a job in
advertising.
She subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to attend USC to study screenwriting.
Rhimes was ranked at the top of her class and earned the Gary Rosenberg Writing Fellowship
Award.
She also obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California's
School of Cinema-Television.
Career Career beginnings: 1995–2004
After graduation, Rhimes found herself an unemployed scriptwriter in Hollywood.
To make ends meet, Rhimes worked at a variety of day jobs, including as an office administrator,
and then as a counselor at a job center that taught mentally ill and homeless people job
skills.
During this period, Rhimes also worked as research director on the 1995 Peabody Award-winning
documentary, Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream.
Rhimes made her directorial debut in 1998 with the short film Blossoms and Veils starring
Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeffrey Wright.
A feature script Rhimes wrote was purchased by New Line Cinema.
This was soon followed by an assignment to write the acclaimed 1999 HBO movie Introducing
Dorothy Dandridge.
It 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 over $60 million worldwide.
She then moved on to Disney’s sequel to its popular 2001 movie The Princess Diaries.
Though 2004's The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement did not score at the box office
like its predecessor, Rhimes later said that she treasured the experience if for nothing
else – the opportunity to work with its star, Julie Andrews.
Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal and other projects: 2005–present
Rhimes is the creator, and is currently the executive producer and head writer of Grey's
Anatomy.
The series debuted as a midseason replacement on March 27, 2005.
The series focuses on the surgical staff at the fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital
in Seattle, Washington.
The series features an ensemble cast with Ellen Pompeo serving as titular character
Meredith Grey, who provides narration for a majority of the series' episodes.
On May 16, 2006, ABC announced plans to relocate Grey's Anatomy from Sunday evenings to Thursdays
in order to anchor the network's Thursday evening programming, by airing Thursdays at
9 p.m. EST.
As Thursday has historically been the most competitive programming night among American
broadcast networks, the announced schedule change for the series has been viewed by media
analysts as another vote of confidence in the series from ABC.
The show is still being aired.
Rhimes also created and produced the Grey's Anatomy spin-off series Private Practice.
The series debuted on September 26, 2007 on ABC.
The show chronicles the life of Dr. Addison Montgomery as she leaves Seattle Grace Hospital
for Los Angeles in order to join a private practice.
The series features an ensemble cast, including Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Audra McDonald and
Taye Diggs among others.
The first season was shortened due to writers' strike and consists of only nine episodes.
In May 2012, ABC picked up Private Practice for the 2012-13 television season with 13
episodes.
The series finale was aired January 22, 2013.
Rhimes created a new pilot for ABC in 2010 called Inside the Box, a female-centric ensemble
drama set in a Washington, D.C. network news bureau.
The lead character was Catherine, an ambitious female news producer, who with her colleagues
pursued "the story" at all costs while juggling their personal animosities and crises of conscience.
It was not picked up by the network.
In 2011, Rhimes served as executive producer for the medical drama, Off the Map, which
was created by Grey's Anatomy writer, Jenna Bans.
It focused on a group of doctors who practice medicine at a remote clinic in the Amazon.
The series was officially cancelled by the ABC network on May 13, 2011.
In May 2011, ABC ordered Rhimes's pilot script Scandal to series.
Kerry Washington stars as Olivia Pope, a political crisis management expert who is partially
based on former Bush administration press aide Judy Smith.
The series debut aired on April 5, 2012.
She developed the period drama television pilot Gilded Lillys in 2012, which was not
picked up to series.
In December 2013 it was announced that ABC had ordered to pilot the Shondaland production
How To Get Away With Murder.
Actress Viola Davis joined the cast as the lead character in February 2014.
It was officially picked up to series on May 8, 2014.
Shondaland ShondaLand is the name of Rhimes' production
company.
It and its logo also refer to the shows that Rhimes has created, and is also commonly used
to refer to Rhimes herself.
Shows which are included in Shondaland are: Grey's Anatomy
Private Practice Scandal
How To Get Away With Murder Actors within Shondaland
"Shondaland" uses many actors throughout the shows but many are re-used.
Characters tend to be recurring in one series and a main character in the other.
Personal life Rhimes adopted her first daughter in June
2002 and adopted another girl in February 2012.
In September 2013, Rhimes welcomed her third daughter via gestational surrogacy.
Filmography Awards
Rhimes was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay for the 2002 Britney Spears
film Crossroads.
In 2005, Rhimes was nominated for a Black Reel Award in the category Best Screenplay,
Adapted or Original for The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
Rhimes was nominated for an Emmy Award on three occasions: in 2006, for a dramatic series
and a separate nomination for writing a dramatic series, followed by a third nomination in
2007 for a dramatic series.
Rhimes was nominated by PGA awards for the "Television Producer of the Year Award in
Episodic" for Drama in Grey's Anatomy in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and won the award in 2007.
Rhimes and fellow co-workers were nominated in 2006 and 2007 by the Writers Guild of America,
USA for the WGA Award and won the award in 2006.
In 2007, Rhimes, along with the cast of Grey's Anatomy, was awarded the Women in Film Lucy
Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have
enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.
In 2007, Rhimes won an Image Award for "Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series" for the episode
"It's the End of the World" on Grey's Anatomy.
On February 14, 2008 at the 39th NAACP Image Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium in California,
Rhimes won "Outstanding Writing for a Dramatic Series" for the episode "A Change is Gonna
Come" on Grey's Anatomy.
In addition, Rhimes and fellow writer Krista Vernoff won an award for "Outstanding Writing
in a Drama Series" for Private Practice.
Rhimes has gone on to win two more Image Awards.
One was in 2009 for the episode "Freedom", and the other in 2010 for "What a Difference
a Day Makes"; both awards were for "Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series" on Grey's Anatomy.
In 2007, Rhimes won the Golden Globe for "Outstanding Television Drama" on Grey's Anatomy.
References
External links Shonda Rhimes at the Internet Movie Database
'Grey Matter' Writer's Blog on ABC.com Interview with Shonda Rhimes on the Tavis
Smiley show Writer's Guild of America profile
NYTimes profile, September 18, 2014