Shonda Rhimes: the force behind Grey's Anatomy

Ebony, Oct, 2005 by Aldore Collier

Rhimes wrote a script for the NBC sitcom Scrubs. Soon afterwards, she hit paydirt when she was selected to pen the script for the HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge with Halle Berry.

In addition to writing, Rhimes got a chance to immerse herself in information while researching the life of one of Hollywood's most enduring legends. "It was a wonderful experience. I traveled to meet all these people in Dorothy's life," she says. "I learned a ton about Black Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s and how Hattie McDaniel and all these people would have wonderful parties and all of them would hang together. And Halle was fabulous."

Both parties, she says, were totally committed to the project. "Halle said to me, 'Make Dorothy who Dorothy should be and I will do my best to become who Dorothy was.' I thought she was amazing."

Since Dorothy Dandridge, her writing has really been in demand. Soon afterwards, she was approached to write a movie for a teen idol whose name and music were totally alien to her. That idol was Britney Spears. Rhimes flew to Chicago to meet with Spears and toured with her before writing the script for the film Crossroads, about youngsters on a road trip chasing dreams. "It was fun to see what it was like to live like a superstar," she says.

Rhimes also got a chance to work with a superstar she had admired all of her life, Julie Andrews, when she wrote the script for the hit film Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.

Beyond writing for such a legendary actress, Rhimes was impressed with the message the film's producers were trying to convey. "It was fun sending out a message that I thought was really great, a message that you don't need a man to run a country, or run a business, or run your life."

Empowering girls and women while not bashing men is another focus of her efforts. This is her take: "It's fabulous to have a partner. But if you don't, you're going to be fine. I think a lot of women spend a lot of time waiting to have a life until they have a man. Twenty years ago, women waited to buy real furniture until they had a man. That doesn't happen anymore. I'm absolutely not anti-men."

But Rhimes is a doting mother of a 3-year-old adopted daughter, who is the focus of 100 percent of her time away from the studio. The studio, however, requires more and more of her time. She currently has a three-picture deal with Disney Studios as well as an arrangement with Touchstone to develop other television shows.

Those kinds of challenges are time-consuming, but the writing projects are a warm and constant reminder that she is, on a daily basis, embracing so many of the dreams she conjured up as a child.