Shonda Rhimes

She is single and has three daughters. She adopted her first daughter in 2002 and her second daughter in 2012. In 2013, she had a third daughter through gestational surrogacy.

Shonda was born Shonda Lynn Rhimes, on January 13, 1970, in Chicago, Illinois, to Vera P. (Cain) and Ilee Rhimes Jr. She is the youngest of the six children of her parents. She has two elder brothers and three elder sisters. She was raised in the village of Park Forest South, which is now known as University Park, in Will County, Illinois.

Her mother was a university administrator, and her father was a university professor. Her father later became the chief information officer at the ‘University of Southern California’ (USC), where he served till 2013.

She attended the ‘Marian Catholic High School’ in Chicago Heights. After graduating high school, she joined ‘Dartmouth College.’ She earned her bachelor’s degree in English and film studies. She wrote articles for the college newspaper. She was a member of the ‘Black Underground Theater Association’ at ‘Dartmouth.’ She directed and performed in student plays and also wrote fiction.

After earning her degree in 1991, she moved to San Francisco, where she worked with ‘McCann Erickson’ for a while. Following this, she moved to Los Angeles and earned her MFA degree, from the ‘School of Cinematic Arts’ at the ‘USC,’ majoring in screenwriting. She graduated at the top of her class and was awarded the ‘Gary Rosenberg Writing Fellowship.’

While at the ‘USC,’ she was hired as an intern by producer Debra Martin Chase. Chase became her mentor and brought her an opportunity to intern at Denzel Washington’s production company, ‘Mundy Lane Entertainment.’

After graduating, she started doing minor day jobs to support herself. She began her career as an office administrator and later worked as a counselor at a center that taught job skills to the mentally ill and the homeless. She also worked as a research director for the documentary ‘Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream,’ which won the 1995 ‘Peabody Award.’

In 1998, she made a short film titled ‘Blossoms and Veils,’ which starred Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeffrey Wright. It is her only film as a director. In 1999, ‘New Line Cinema’ purchased a script of hers. This was her first major success as a scriptwriter. The same year, she got an assignment to co-write the ‘HBO’ TV movie ‘Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.’ The film won many awards for its lead actor, Halle Berry.

In 2001, she wrote the script of the film ‘Crossroads,’ which was pop singer Britney Spears’s debut film. The film received negative reviews but earned over $60 million worldwide.

She also wrote the screenplay for the ‘Disney’ film ‘The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement,’ which was the sequel to the highly successful 2001 film ‘The Princess Diaries.’ The film did not do as well as its prequel but managed to earn almost $135 million at the box office. She once stated that she loved working with Julie Andrews, who was part of the film.

Some of her major projects have been ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘Private Practice,’ ‘Scandal,’ ‘How to Get Away with Murder,’ and ‘Station 19.’ Of these, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ continues to be her most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work.