Shonda Rhimes is the creator,

head writer and executive

producer of the success-

ful U.S. television drama Grey’s

Anatomy. She is the first African-

American woman to create and

executive-produce one of the 10

most popular network television

series. The show, now in its 10th

season, won a Golden Globe for

Rhimes for Best Television Series

Drama. Grey’s Anatomy has also

won National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP) Image Awards for

addressing important issues of

race.

Rhimes was born in 1970 in

Chicago, the youngest of six chil-

dren. Her father was a university

administrator and her mother was

a professor. A great storyteller

since childhood, Rhimes earned a

bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth

University in English litera-

ture and creative writing. After

briefly entering the advertising

world in San Francisco, Rhimes

enrolled in the Writing for Screen

and Television Program at the

University of Southern California,

earning a master of fine arts degree.

Embassy of the United States of America AFRICAN-AMERICAN LEADERS

Shonda Rhimes, Television Writer, Producer

Golden Globe–winning writer Shonda Rhimes has written and executive-produced three successful television shows. © AP Images

.

In 2011, Rhimes won an

NAACP Image Award for

Outstanding Writing in a Drama

Series for Private Practice, a show

she launched in 2007 that featured

story lines and characters based

on Grey’s Anatomy. She launched

another successful television

show, Scandal, in 2012. The show

follows a Washington based crisis-

management firm that manages the

images of public officials. The New

York Times reports that Rhimes’

newest show is so popular that “on

Thursday nights, Twitter becomes

a giant Scandal chat room, fans of

the show dispatching more than

190,000 tweets per episode.”

Shonda Rhimes attends “Welcome to Shondaland, an Evening with Shonda Rhimes and Friends” in North Hollywood, California. © AP Images

Shonda Rhimes, Television Writer, Producer

U N I T E D S TAT E S D E P A R T M E N T O F S TAT EB U R E A U O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L I N F O R M AT I O N P R O G R A M S

Published November 2013

ISBN 978–1–62592–167–3