SHONDA RHIMES

CEO, SHONDALAND INC.

Rhimes is the first African American woman to create and executive produce a Top 10 network series—the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. However, throughout the years her creative lightning has struck several times with series such as spin-offs Private Practice and Station 19, the political thriller Scandal, and the legal whodunit How to Get Away with Murder. Dominating ABC’s Thursday night line-up for well over a decade earned Rhimes $10 million a year in her studio pact with ABC. Rhimes’ success positioned her production company, Shondaland, to cut a deal with Netflix three years ago for nine figures and creative control over her new properties. Her 2016 book, Year of Yes, became an instant New York Times best-seller. Subtitled How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person, it spun off a best-selling journal.

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