"What to say about Shonda Rhimes that wasn't better said when Variety called her in a cover story 'TV's most powerful showrunner'?" said CNN anchor Jake Tapper '91 at an event welcoming distinguished alumni into the College's Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame in May.
Among the first inductees is Shonda Rhimes '91, an award-winning television creator, producer, and author, as well as the CEO of the global media company, Shondaland. She is the first woman to create three television dramas—Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal—that have achieved the 100-episode milestone. For five TV seasons, award-winning Shondaland shows Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder occupied ABC's entire Thursday night schedule, creating a powerful brand well-known to fans and advertisers as "TGIT."
Facing stiff opposition from network executives, Rhimes proved "that shows that feature characters of color are actually more financially powerful in terms of advertising dollars and audiences than the shows we used to watch in which every character was white," Tapper continued. "They made more money, they were more successful, more people watched them. And that's why TV network television today looks like America."
In 2017, Rhimes shifted the entertainment industry's business model when she left network television to exclusively produce streaming content in partnership with Netflix. Bridgerton, Shondaland's first scripted series with the streamer, has become a worldwide franchise. Rhimes also scripted the popular Bridgerton prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, the limited series Inventing Anna based on the popular New York magazine article about the fake German heiress Anna Delvey, and executive produced the documentary Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker, highlighting the legendary choreographer Debbie Allen.
Rhimes broadened her company's content landscape when she launched the culture website Shondaland.com in partnership with Hearst Digital Media as well as Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. She's a New York Times best-selling author for her memoir Year of Yes and has built multiplatform partnerships with such leading brands as Dove, Peloton, St. John, Masterclass, Microsoft, and Mattel.
Rhimes has three times been included in the TIME 100 list of most influential people, has been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her service to U.S./UK relations, and her work has been celebrated with numerous awards including induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Rhimes, an English literature with creative writing major who was director of Dartmouth's Black Underground Theatre and Arts Association as an undergraduate, offered a spirited account of the central role that Dartmouth, where she is now a trustee, has played in her career trajectory.
"I mingled with professors and I befriended people from wildly different backgrounds, and I learned to advocate for myself," she said. "I was introduced to new interests. And for the first time, I began to think of myself as a global citizen. But most of all, Dartmouth embedded in me the belief that hard work is necessary. That obstacles are not obstacles, they're just to be climbed. That determination and grit and intelligence made me feel unstoppable."
This story was adapted from an article that appeared on the Dartmouth News site in May 2024.
Photograph by The Tyler Twins
