Powerhouse

he’s one 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, and as recently as October 2017, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, making her the third black woman to achieve this. Previous honorees are Oprah Winfrey in 1993, and actress and singer Diahann Carroll in 2011. ut who is Shonda Rhimes and how did she get to be such a powerhouse? She was born in Illinois, USA, in 1970, the youngest of six children. Her father was a university administrator and her mother, a of