By now, Shonda Rhimes should be a household name in black America. Her name is like gold in Tinseltown. She is a bona fide Hollywood superstar despite the fact that you’ve probably never seen her face on a TV camera. The 42-year-old Chicago native is only one of the most sought-after talents in entertainment after being the creator, head writer and producer for one of the greatest medical dramas on television in the modern era with “Grey’s Anatomy” and it’s spin-off show, “Private Practice.”
In addition, Rhimes was the executive producer for the medical show “Off the Map” and, to perhaps top all of her work, she has created the sizzling, critically acclaimed political thriller “Scandal” starring bronze bombshell Kerry Washington.
Her impact has been so enormous over popular culture that she was named one of Time magazine’s “100 People Who Shape the World.”
And get this: Rhimes was a highly sought-after, award-winning writer and director long before “Grey’s Anatomy” came to fruition as she worked with the likes of Oscar-winner Halle Berry, Jada Pinkett Smith and screen legend Julie Andrews.
If you are not yet familiarized with the indefatigable, show-creating juggernaut that is Shonda Rhimes, it’s about time you get to know her. Follow use as we take a look at her fabulously meteoric rise from unemployed film school graduate and obscure back-stage screenwriter into unarguably one of the most, if not the most, powerful African American in entertainment.
Shonda Rhime’s storybook journey begins in Chi-town on January 13, 1970, one of four children born to a university administrator and a college professor as parents. They laid the groundwork for her award-winning scholastic career long before she even got to Hollywood. Rhimes has stated that she exhibited an early affinity for storytelling and that her time spent as a candy striper while in high school sparked an interest in hospital environments.
