Do we like Shonda Rhimes?
Our score: 9 out of 10. Years of visible allyship and a big gift to her old uni, with only a thin record on the good-person side keeping her off a perfect ten.
Shonda Rhimes is the woman behind Grey's Anatomy and, via her company Shondaland, a run of TV hits. Since 2017 Shondaland has been based at Netflix, where Bridgerton has drawn 610 million views since 2023. She went to Dartmouth, which is part of why her recent gift there matters.
The latest news is business, not scandal. In August Netflix announced a five-year renewal covering Shondaland and her producing partner Betsy Beers, across shows, films, games and live events. The Grey's Texas spinoff she created with Meg Marinis is due on Netflix in 2027.
The spiciest recent moment was small. Asked at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party why Eric Dane missed the Oscars tribute, she said he was not a movie star and that the Emmys were the right place to honour him. She called him unique to television, so it read as defending his place in TV rather than a snub.
On the harm test she does well. In 2016 she went on Twitter to blast politicians behind anti-trans bathroom laws like North Carolina's HB2. In 2023 the Human Rights Campaign gave her its National Equality Award, and she said “I am proud to be an ally in this fight.”
We found no harmful words of her own and no worrying company. Her work sits with Netflix and her own shows, and we found nothing on climate either way, so that's a gap rather than a pass. She has also faced backlash over Bridgerton's casting and race, and her answer has been to defend it, not back off.
On the good-person side, searches for court rulings and accusations turned up nothing decided against her. The old Grey's Anatomy on-set feud stories are mostly tabloid territory, so we haven't leaned on them. The real good is concrete: a $15 million gift to Dartmouth for a residence hall bearing her name, set to be the first building there named for a Black alum and a woman.