The district attorney's office said 35-year-old Ivanna Lisette Ortiz of Florida was charged in the shooting on Sunday afternoon, local time, outside the superstar's home in the Beverly Hills area.
No one was hurt and it was not clear if the Grammy award-winning performer was home at the time.
Court records show Ortiz also was charged with three counts of shooting at an inhabited vehicle or dwelling.
The suspect was being held on $US10.2 million ($A14.3 million) bail and was brought into court in Los Angeles for arraignment on Tuesday, local time.
Ortiz appeared in court behind glass in a custody area as she waited for the judge to call her case. She wore blue jail clothes with her blonde hair in braids and spoke to a lawyer through the glass.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell told media gathered for a news conference on a different subject that 10 people were at home at the time.
He identified the house as Rihanna's, but he did not say whether she, her partner A$AP Rocky or their children were home when the shots were fired.
McDonnell said investigators believe Ortiz drove to the area from Florida, but it's not clear when.
Public records show her most recent address was in Orlando and that she has been a licensed speech pathologist for more than a decade.
Authorities have not said if she has any connection to Rihanna.
Ortiz was arrested on Sunday afternoon after the shooting and a weapon was recovered, police said
It was unclear if she has a lawyer. Voicemails could not be left on a phone number listed under her name, and no one immediately responded to an email seeking comment sent to an address listed in her name.
The Associated Press sent emails seeking comment from Rihanna's publicist and manager.
KABC-TV broadcast video that appeared to show five bullet holes in the home's front gate. The news station obtained police dispatch audio that says 10 shots were fired.
In 2018, a man was accused of breaking into another home belonging to Rihanna in the Hollywood Hills and spending 12 hours there.
The man pleaded no contest to felony counts of stalking and vandalism and a misdemeanour count of resisting arrest in 2019. He was sentenced to probation.
A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has 14 No.1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including We Found Love, Work, Umbrella and Disturbia. She founded the makeup brand Fenty Beauty in 2017.
She and A$AP Rocky announced the birth of their third child, a girl named Rocki Irish Mayers, in September.
