She’s one of the most celebrated television writers of our time.
Also a prolific director and producer, Shonda Rhimes is the brains behind some of the world’s most loved shows, including the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.
The long-running series sealed her name in the annals of history as the first Black woman to create and be the executive producer of a top 10 network series. She’s also the creative brains behind the political thriller TV series Scandal (The Fixer) and the legal drama, How to Get Away with Murder.
Not only is Shonda the creator of quality productions, she’s also made stars of deserving and previously overlooked actresses – notably Kerry Washington and Viola Davis. How To Get Away With Murder earned Viola an Emmy award in 2015, making her the first Black woman to win an Emmy for Best Drama Actress.
Shonda’s contribution to the entertainment industry, as a writer and a director, has been widely acknowledged: she’s won numerous awards over the past decade in October 2017, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, making her the third Black woman to achieve this. Previous honourees are Oprah Winfrey in 1993, and actress and singer Diahann Carroll in 2011.
But who is Shonda Rhimes and how did she get to be such a powerhouse? She was born in Illinois, U.S., in 1970, the youngest of six children. Her father was a university administrator and her mother a college professor with two doctoral degrees.
Shonda enjoyed creative writing from an early age and, after high school, the overachiever completed her BA degree in English and film studies from Dartmouth College in 1991. After a short stint working in the advertising industry, she quit to enrol in a screenwriting programme at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. She then found full-time work as a development assistant, writing her own scripts on the side.
@truelovemagazine With family in Pretoria, #QueenCharlotte: A Bridgerton Story actress Arsema Thomas - who plays the young Lady Danbury - says her acting journey began in South Africa and she is happy to share her talent with the country. #queencharlotte #bridgerton #ladydanbury #perioddrama #netflixseries #netflixsa #southafrica #pretoria ? original sound - TRUELOVE
She cut her teeth as a professional screenwriter when she sold her first screenplay, Human Seeking Same. Even though the film was never made, it inspired Shonda to write more. In 1999, she was hired to co-write the movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge for HBO. This was followed by her penning the 2001 film Crossroads starring Britney Spears and Zoe Saldana, and then 2004’s The Princess Diaries 2 starring Anne Hathaway.
Intrigued by real-life surgeries on TV, Shona got inspiration while she was a stay-at-home mom, looking after her newborn adopted daughter, Harper. The script for Grey’s Anatomy, a fictional drama that follows a group of doctors at a Seattle Hospital, was born.
“I was obsessed with the surgery channels. My sisters and I would call each other and talk about operations we’d seen on the Discovery Channel. There’s something fascinating about the medical world. You see things you’d never imagine, like the fact that doctors talk about their boyfriends or their day while they’re cutting somebody open,” she says.
So, when ABC asked her to write a pilot for them, “the emergency room seemed like the natural setting”, she told Oprah.com.
The show premiered in 2005. It reached cult status and celebrated its 300th episode in November. Explaining her initial reaction to the success of the show, she says: “I didn’t expect this. When the press began asking me for interviews, I freaked out. My instinct was to hide. Luckily, the set is a bubble. When we’re here, things can feel the way they used to.”
READ MORE | WATCH: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story tackles an arranged marriage, navigating in-laws and love
In 2012 Shonda gave TV audiences yet another hot series, introducing us to the fierce Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington. She told online publication Vulture.com: “The question was: Are audiences ready to have the stories that we tell on television to be more inclusive? Are we ready for our protagonists to represent people of all different genders and ethnicities?”
Clearly, gauging by the viewership of the show audiences were ready. Despite her accomplishments, Shonda is candid about Hollywood’s lack of diversity. She told Latina.com: “What I find most shocking is that financially, it’s just a giant mistake on the part of TV and movies and products to not portray or reach out to a multitude of cultures, instead of just thinking of one kind of person and one kind of interest.”
She added that less diversity propagated stereotypes. “When you’re the only one of something, the tendency is that you have to represent everybody. So when you end up being a stereotype or a totem or perfect, it’s definitely frustrating.”
The mother of three daughters, Harper, Emerson – who’s also adopted, and Beckett, whom she had via surrogacy, is doing amazing work and is an inspiration to many women but she’s the first to admit that it’s not easy.
In addition to all her milestones as a writer and producer, she is also a creative director. In 2017, she partnered with Dove to become creative director for the brand’s production house, Real Beauty Productions. She’s spearheaded a series of short films about inspiring women who persevere through daily challenges.
READ MORE | Q&A with Shonda Rhimes on one of her first Netflix original releases: Bridgerton
Shonda has faced many struggles herself, including one with her weight. A few years ago, she lost a whopping 68kg. She described her weight-loss journey as an eye-opener.
“I did not do it because I thought I’d become beautiful like in the movies,” she explains. “I did it because I could not walk up a short flight of stairs without stopping to take a break and wiping sweat from my brow. I did it because my body was physically rebelling against the brain that had been ignoring it for so long. Losing weight is not a topic I like discussing. Why? Because there is nothing fun or interesting or great about it,” she wrote in her newsletter.
She also jokingly told Vanityfair.com that in her youth, “my philosophy was always to try to look like Whitney Houston at all times. That did not work out so well.”
@truelovemagazine We caught up with actress Golda Rosheuvel, who plays Queen Charlotte, at the SA launch of the Bridgerton spinoff. She tells us about bringing the show to South Africa. #queencharlotte #bridgerton #netflixsa #netflixseries #perioddrama #shondalandbridgerton #southafrica #truelovemagazine #truelove #guyaneseactress #britishactress #fyp ? original sound - TRUELOVE
Always a step ahead, Shonda recently expanded her production company, Shondaland, to include a website, Shondaland.com, where she writes: “My idea wasn’t to bring all of you amazing, thoughtful, curious, interesting people together, gather you around a digital campfire, and feed you a lifestyle.
“That’s not what we do here. No gossip, no useless beauty tips, no ways to make your but tighter or your thighs thinner, no advice on how to make your boyfriend propose. No terrifying health stories that scare the crap out of you and make you think you are going die tomorrow. No fear.”
On top of all her achievements, she has signed a multimillion-dollar deal with giant TV streaming company Netflix, which allows her to do what she wants. Enter the Bridgerton series.
