Rhimes credits her early success, in part, to mentors such as Chase, a prominent African-American producer. While at USC, Rhimes was hired as an intern by Debra Martin Chase. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Ranked at the top of her USC class, Rhimes earned the Gary Rosenberg Writing Fellowship. She subsequently moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California and study screenwriting. After college, she relocated to San Francisco with an older sibling and worked in advertising at McCann Erickson. She also wrote for the college newspaper. She divided her time between directing and performing in student productions, and writing fiction. At Dartmouth, she joined the Black Underground Theater Association. At Dartmouth College, she majored in English and film studies and earned her bachelor's degree in 1991. Rhimes attended Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois. While in high school, she served as a hospital volunteer, which inspired an interest in hospital environments. She has said she exhibited an early affinity for storytelling. Rhimes lived in Park Forest South (now University Park, Illinois), with her two older brothers and three older sisters. Her father, who holds an MBA, became chief information officer (CIO) at the University of Southern California, serving until 2013. Her mother attended college while raising their six children and earned a PhD in educational administration in 1991. (née Cain), a college professor, and Ilee Rhimes, Jr., a university administrator.

Rhimes was born in Chicago, Illinois, as the youngest of six children of Vera P. Netflix had already purchased the streaming rights to past episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal. In 2017, Netflix said that it had entered into a multi-year development deal with Rhimes, by which all of her future productions will be Netflix Original series. In 2015, she published her first book, a memoir, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person.

In 2007, 20, Rhimes was named by Time on the Time 100, their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Rhimes has also served as the executive producer of the ABC television series Off the Map, How to Get Away with Murder, The Catch, and Grey's spin-off Station 19. She is best known as the showrunner-creator, head writer, and executive producer-of the television medical drama Grey's Anatomy, its spin-off Private Practice, and the political thriller series Scandal. Shonda Lynn Rhimes (born January 13, 1970) is an American television screenwriter, producer, and author.

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes