Shonda Rhimes has landed on the cover of TIME’s first issue for 2022.

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In the exclusive interview, the creator of such modern classics as “Scandal” and “Bridgerton” talked about the road less traveled that she took to get to Hollywood.

Did you know, for example, that she got her start in scriptwriting, where she penned such films as “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” which starred Halle Berry in the title role? Or, did you know that hers was the pen behind the 2002 cult classic, “Crossroads,” featuring one Britney Jean Spears?

Shonda Rhimes pivoted to television in the early 2000s, shortly after the 9/11 attacks — and after she adopted her eldest daughter (who is now in college) without having a co-parent. Her first partnership was with Betsy Beers, and it’s a partnership that continues to this day.

But, she said, one of the first things she did was deploy “color-blind” casting, which is how “Grey’s Anatomy” (her second-ever television creation; the first never made it to air) got such a diverse cast as Sandra Oh and Ellen Pompeo.

“Nobody said, ‘There are too many people of color on that show,’” she said to TIME.

And that’s also how she got Kerry Washington — who played Olivia Pope, the lead character, in “Scandal” — to become the first Black woman to play the lead in a prime-time network drama since the mid-’70s. Subsequently, she created a series of strong Black leads that helped create a whole new subgenre of characters in “Shondaland.”

“There was a brand that I specifically created for ABC. It has some hallmarks, and one of them is fierce, incredibly successful career women,” Shonda Rhimes said to TIME. “It was highly successful and highly financially viable for them.”

Shonda Rhimes

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