“My parents are education intellectuals and they were not interested.” The children were encouraged to read instead, which Shonda did prodigiously. “We didn’t watch a lot of television in our house,” she says. Rhimes’s own journey began in suburban Chicago in 1970, where she was born the incredibly shy, youngest of six children to a cultured family in which academic achievement was highly prized. ‘I had this amazing discovery of television much later in life’ … Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes. What were her hopes and dreams? How did she make this journey into power?” I enjoyed writing her more than I’ve enjoyed writing any other character.”Ĭould this be because Rhimes relates to Queen Charlotte, one powerful woman to another? Rhimes won’t concede this directly, but does say: “I think there’s a lot about her that feels like women today and what happens when they become successful … It was exciting to me to go backwards and figure out how she got to be this amazing, powerful woman. “It’s a story about a woman coming into her own, it’s a story about friendships, about power, about politics. “It’s more than a romance story,” says Rhimes. We see her struggling to seduce her amateur astronomer husband-to-be (heartthrob Corey Mylchreest) – hers is the only “heavenly body” he’s not interested in, apparently – and forging a life-long friendship with the young Lady Agatha Danbury (Arsema Thomas). Young Charlotte is played by newcomer India Amarteifio with protofeminist pluck, and the instantly engaging verve of all Rhimes’s female leads. “She was outsized, very glamorous, held herself above everyone,” says Rhimes of the character’s appeal. The 17-year-old Charlotte arrived in the British court as a ridiculed outsider, yet she managed to sustain her eventful marriage to George III through 57 years, 15 children and his multiple bouts of mental illness, eventually emerging as the imperious diva of Bridgerton’s imaginings.

Having retrieved the showrunning reins from Bridgerton’s Chris Van Dusen, she is telling the backstory of the monarch loosely based on Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818). The ultimate proof of this is Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Rhimes’s most personal and pleasurable project yet. Photograph: Liam Daniel/Netflixīest of all, Rhimes seems to be enjoying her streaming era – she signed a $100m deal with Netflix in 2017. Corey Mylchreest as Young King George and India Amarteifio as Young Queen Charlotte in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

Shonda rhimes biography book