Watch: How Will Grey's Anatomy End? Creator Shonda Rhimes Says...Shonda Rhimes turned tragedy-and life circumstances-into triumph. The television icon revealed that she started writing Grey's Anatomy in 2002 after being dissatisfied with the offerings on TV at the time and deciding to take matters into her own hands. "9/11 had happened," Shonda explained on the March 10 episode of Serena Williams and Venus Williams' Stockton Street podcast. "And I said to myself, 'If my life ended tomorrow, what will I regret having not done?' And the answer was be a mom.