The Utrom Shredder is the main Shredder; he has the most history with the Turtles and Splinter. He is called the Utrom Shredder as he is not truly human, but an Utrom named Ch'rell who uses an Utrom exo-suit (a humanoid vessel).
Ch'rell is a dangerous enemy of the Utroms; as it would happen, he was being transported as their prisoner but escaped and sabotaged their spacecraft. The Utrom crash-landed on Earth during the Sengoku period of feudal Japanese history, forced into hiding using their exo-suits. Ch'rell confiscated one such suit and used the legend of the demon Shredder to craft a dual identity, becoming Oroku Saki and the new Shredder. He also founded the Foot Clan, which grew into a massive underground criminal empire by the 20th century. In the late 20th century, he discovers an abandoned girl named Karai, whom he adopted and trained. Outside of the Utroms, she is the only one initially to know the truth about him. Despite not being the demonic version of the Shredder, Ch'rell is shown to have contacts with the mystical world, visible by the fact that some of his minions are supernatural beings. Throughout it all, Shredder hunts for the Utroms to exact his revenge and prevent them from re-capturing him.
While in New York City to establish a branch of the clan there, Shredder locates Hamato Yoshi, one of the Utroms' foremost guardians, and kills him after failing to force their location from him. During the struggle, Yoshi's pet rat, Splinter, escapes and winds up in the city's sewers where he and four baby turtles are accidentally exposed to mutagenic ooze created by the Utroms and consequently mutate into sentient humanoid forms.
Fifteen years later, the Turtles begin encountering the Foot Clan and unknowingly foil several of Shredder's plans. Shredder reveals himself to the Turtles and (after failing to make them ally with him) becomes their bitter enemy. He loses his first major battle against them and Splinter, but he later deals them a crushing defeat, in which Leonardo is severely beaten, April's antique shop is burned to the ground and everyone is presumed dead. After recovering out of town, Leonardo leads his brothers and Splinter in an attack on Foot headquarters, culminating in Shredder's beheading. Not knowing his Utrom nature, the Turtles think him dead.
However, Ch'rell survived, but was gravely injured. As his body was healed, Karai assumed leadership of the Foot Clan, ending an ensuing war for control of New York City and supposedly making peace with the Turtles. But when Ch'rell returned, he vowed to destroy the Turtles by any means necessary. After the Turtles help repel a Triceraton invasion, New York City is heavily damaged. Oroku Saki steps forward to help rebuild, spending millions as a cover to retrieve Triceraton technology that was left behind. He has a spacecraft constructed, so that he may leave before the Utroms return for him. It is completed, but his plan suffers complications courtesy of the Turtles, their allies and Agent Bishop. The ship is launched, but the Turtles and Splinter sneak aboard. In a more powerful exo-suit, he easily defeats them. The Turtles and Splinter self-destruct the ship to stop the Shredder, but the timely arrival of the Utroms saves all their lives. On the Utrom homeworld, Ch'rell is placed on trial, found guilty and sentenced to eternal exile on an icy asteroid.
- In the Fast Forward season episode, "Timing is Everything," Leonardo and Cody Jones are accidentally sent back to just after the Utrom Shredder's first defeat. Before returning to 2105, Leonardo briefly battles him and Shredder notices "something different" about his foe. Later, Shredder and several Foot ninjas are transported to 2105. They are, however, easily outmatched by their more advanced foes.
- In "Same As It Never Was," an alternate future showed Ch'rell ruling Earth with an iron fist and poised to take over other planets. He is later killed by Donatello. In "Tempus Fugit," the future is shown in which the Tengu, Utrom, and Cyber Shredders engage in a war for control of the city. The Turtles use part of this Shredder's exo-suit to help repair android Serling and return to their own time. This future would have happened in the next season of "Back to the Sewers", but because it got cancelled this was never shown.
- In Turtles Forever, Ch'rell is brought back from his exile by his counterpart from the 1987 series. Ch'rell then takes over the Technodrome and examines various alternate realities. Finding reality after reality of heroic Turtles, Ch'rell vows to eliminate them all by destroying the prime dimension. The Mirage Turtles, the 1987 Turtles, and the 2003 Turtles team-up to stop Ch'rell, who is ultimately defeated by Bebop and Rocksteady (from the '87 series) and seemingly destroyed forever.
However, it is stated by Karai and Master Splinter that the Shredder is never gone for long.
Read more about this topic: Master Shredder, 2003 Animated Series