Shira-Lee Shalit? is an award-winning director, writer and filmmaker. Most recently she wrote and directed The Oh Gees- a dark comedy starring Didi Conn, Kathryn Kates and Austin Pendleton. It won Best Comedy at the Paris Short Film Festival and the Piermont Film Festival, and is an official selection at the LA Comedy Film Festival. She is currently developing a series based on it. ?
Shira-Lee?was chosen by Steven Spielberg out of 12,000 directors as one of 18 Finalists for the Fox/DreamWorks TV show, On The Lot. While on the show, Shira-Lee wrote and directed three films to critical acclaim. Her feature film debut, A-List, a comedy starring Academy Award Nominee Sally Kirkland (Anna, JFK), ?Renee Taylor (The Nanny) and Daphne Zuniga (Melrose Place) won the Audience Award at the Milan International Film Festival, the Gold Remy Award for Best Comedy at Worldfest Film Festival, and was an IFP Project Involve Awardee. ?Her short?Full Cycle,?was named a Regional Finalist in the?Student Academy Awards.?She directed the award-winning?Open Air, starring Lynn Cohen (Munich, The Hunger Games) which was selected to screen at 50 festivals, winning Best Short Film at the NJ International Film Festival, ?Acefest, ?the Silver Award at the Mexico International Film Festival and Award Of Excellence at Accolades Film Awards.
Theatrical productions include the World Premiere of LAByrinth Theatre Company's Devil of Choice?(Cherry Lane Theater), The Johnsons?(Jack Theater),?What's Wrong With You (Harold Clurman Lab Theater), Any Other Name?(PFAC), ?Nick and Zoe?(IRT Theater & The Bridge Theater,) The Women of Padilla (AADA), Girls Will Be Girls? (NY International Fringe Festival -winner Fringe Favorite), Fault Lines?(TBG Theatre) and many more. Workshops include Lyle Kessler's Temptation and Other Sins (Planet Connections),?Evelyn Dreams of Horses (Judson), Halley Feiffer's How To Make Friends Then Kill Them (LAB Intensive Ensemble) and many more at?Rattlestick,?LAByrinth Theater Company, Cherry Lane Theatre, EST, The Actors Studio, Barefoot Theatre Company (Associate Artistic Director 2015-17), Nylon Fusion, Dixon Place, Vertigo Theatre, The Lark, Jewish Plays Project, NYMadness, WGAE Screenplay Series and LaMama.
Born in South Africa and raised in Texas,?Shira-Lee moved to NYC at 18. She?was awarded the prestigious Presidential Scholar of the Arts Award at the White House, and won the National Foundation Young Arts Award in Acting. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch (BFA- Acting) and Columbia University (MFA- Film Directing.)
A member of The Actors Studio Playwright/Director Unit and NY Women in Film & TV, Shira-Lee is on faculty at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division, StonyBrook/Killer Films MFA Program and NYU Tisch School of the Arts. ?
Adjunct Associate Professor, Film
Film Alumna 1997