Shonda Lynn Rhimes is an American television producer, screenwriter, and author. She is best known as the 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, all of which have aired on ABC. Rhimes has also served as the executive producer of the ABC television series Off the Map, How to Get Away with Murder, and The Catch.

Rhimes was born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 13, 1970. She is the youngest of six children born to a university administrator and a college professor and she exhibited an early affinity for storytelling. While fulfilling a volunteering requirement in high school, she served as a hospital volunteer, which would later inspire her interest in medical storylines.

Rhimes attended Dartmouth College, where she majored in English and film studies, earning her bachelor's degree in 1991. At Dartmouth, she divided her free time between directing and performing in student productions, reporting for the college newspaper, and writing fiction. After college, she relocated to San Francisco and worked in advertising at McCann Erickson and, later, to the University of Southern California to earn a master’s degree in screenwriting. Ranked at the top of her USC class, Rhimes was hired as an intern by Debra Martin Chase, a prominent African- American producer who had become her mentor. She went on to work for Denzel Washington and Disney before creating the hit show Grey’s Anatomy.

In 2007, Rhimes was named one of TIME magazine's 100 People Who Help Shape the World. In 2017, Netflix announced it had entered into a multi-year development deal with Rhimes, under which all of her future productions will be Netflix Original series.