Award-winning producer and Shondaland visionary Shonda Rhimes will be the guest of honor at Westport’s 19th annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, to be held Sunday, January 19, 2025, at 3 pm at The Westport Library.
Acclaimed novelist, playwright, and filmmaker Trey Ellis will interview Rhimes. Registration for their conversation opens Friday, December 20, at 10 am; check back to The Westport Library website to register at that time. The event also will be livestreamed. There is no fee for either the in-person or livestream option.
Rhimes is the CEO of Shondaland, the pioneering storytelling company; the creator, head writer, and executive producer of the hit shows Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal, and Inventing Anna; and the producer of How to Get Away with Murder, Bridgerton, and many more.
The annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration is a partnership between the Library, TEAM Westport, the Westport Country Playhouse, and the Westport/Weston Clergy Association.
“We are honored to welcome Shonda Rhimes as this year’s guest of honor for our Martin Luther King Jr. celebration,” said Bill Harmer, executive director of The Westport Library. “Her groundbreaking storytelling, advocacy for inclusivity, and creative vision embody the values Dr. King stood for and continue to inspire our community today.”
“Shonda Rhimes recently stated, ‘You have to see it to be it,’” said TEAM Westport Chair Harold Bailey. “More than any other storyteller on the planet, she has helped people see and aspire to embrace a world beyond the perennial shackles of bias, custom, and class — a world that is the sweet spot of Martin Luther King’s vision. TEAM Westport is delighted to welcome her as the keynote speaker for our 2025 celebration.”
“As religious leaders living in challenging times for our community, we often turn to the wisdom of Martin Luther King Jr., who said, ‘The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges,’” said Rabbi Jeremy Wiederhorn, spiritual leader of TCS, The Community Synagogue, and chair, the Westport/Weston Clergy Association. “We are proud to be a part of keeping MLK’s legacy alive and blessed that Shonda Rhimes will be helping us do just that this year.”
Rhimes was the Library’s honoree at its 2022 BOOKED for the evening celebration, and she returned to the Library’s Trefz Forum earlier this year to screen her documentary, Black Barbie.
The first woman to create three television dramas that have achieved the 100-episode milestone (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal), Rhimes has received numerous honors including a Golden Globe, the Peabody Award, and lifetime achievement awards from the Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild, and Producers Guild, plus several AFI Awards for Television Program of the Year and NAACP Image Awards.
In 2017, Rhimes was inducted into the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. That same year, she left traditional TV and made the unprecedented move to Netflix, where Shondaland now produces content exclusively for the streaming media company.
In addition, Rhimes serves as creative director for Dove's #RealBeauty campaign, and she partnered with Pilot Pen G2 to award funds to community heroes. Her book, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person, published in 2015, was a New York Times best-seller, and her Masterclass.com course on TV writing is a top draw.
Ellis is an American Book Award-winning novelist, two-time Emmy- and Peabody-winning filmmaker, NAACP Image award-winning playwright and essayist, and professor of professional practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. His lauded first novel, Platitudes, was reissued by Northeastern University Press along with his influential essay, “The New Black Aesthetic.” He also served as executive producer of King in the Wilderness, the 2018 Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary (Outstanding Historical Documentary) on the last three days of Dr. King’s life.
Past Martin Luther King Jr. celebration keynote speakers include National Book Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Ibram X. Kendi, Pulitzer Prize winner James Forman Jr., New York Times best-selling authors Heather McGhee and Layla Saad, Guggenheim Scholar Carol Anderson, American Book Award winner Tricia Rose, Quinnipiac Law School founder Marilyn Ford, author/artist/ filmmaker/multi-dimensional performance artist Junauda Petrus, and last year’s guest, former King speechwriter and advisor Dr. Clarence B. Jones, who helped Dr. King write the famed “I Have a Dream” speech.
