BIO
Shira-Lee Shalit is an award-winning director, writer and filmmaker. She recently wrote and directed "The Oh Gees" - starring Didi Conn (Grease), Kathryn Kates (Orange is the New Black) and Tony nominees Austin Pendleton and K.Todd Freeman. The film was nominated for BEST COMEDY at the Cannes Shorts Film Festival ('23) and won BEST COMEDY at the Paris Short Film Festival and the Piermont Film Festival. ('22) It won the Award Of Excellence for DIRECTION and ENSEMBLE at the Best Shorts Film Festival and is an Official Selection at the LA Comedy Film Festival.
Shira-Lee is currently developing it into a TV series.
Chosen by Steven Spielberg out of 12,000 directors, as one of 18 Finalists for the Fox/DreamWorks TV show, "On The Lot” Shira-Lee wrote and directed three films: Check Out, Beeline and Open House, to great critical acclaim from the judges. 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. She directed Open Air, starring Lynn Cohen (Munich, Sex and the City) which was selected at fifty film festivals, winning Best Short Film at the New Jersey International Film Festival and Acefest, the Silver Award at the Mexico International Film Festival and the Award Of Excellence at Accolades Film Fest. Her first film that she wrote and directed, Full Cycle, was named a Regional Finalist in the Student Academy 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 (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), 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.
Shira-Lee is a proud member of The Actors Studio Playwright/Director Unit and NY Women in Film & TV. A Presidential Scholar of the Arts in Drama, she received the award at The White House and was named a National Foundation in the Arts Award winner.
Shira-Lee is a graduate of NYU Tisch (BFA- Acting) and Columbia University (MFA - Film Directing.)
An avid painter, her art can be viewed on Shiralee-Shalit-Art.com. She is a faculty member at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division, Stony Brook /Killer Film's MFA Film Program and NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she teaches classes on directing actors.
Shira-Lee is currently developing it into a TV series.
Chosen by Steven Spielberg out of 12,000 directors, as one of 18 Finalists for the Fox/DreamWorks TV show, "On The Lot” Shira-Lee wrote and directed three films: Check Out, Beeline and Open House, to great critical acclaim from the judges. 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. She directed Open Air, starring Lynn Cohen (Munich, Sex and the City) which was selected at fifty film festivals, winning Best Short Film at the New Jersey International Film Festival and Acefest, the Silver Award at the Mexico International Film Festival and the Award Of Excellence at Accolades Film Fest. Her first film that she wrote and directed, Full Cycle, was named a Regional Finalist in the Student Academy 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 (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), 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.
Shira-Lee is a proud member of The Actors Studio Playwright/Director Unit and NY Women in Film & TV. A Presidential Scholar of the Arts in Drama, she received the award at The White House and was named a National Foundation in the Arts Award winner.
Shira-Lee is a graduate of NYU Tisch (BFA- Acting) and Columbia University (MFA - Film Directing.)
An avid painter, her art can be viewed on Shiralee-Shalit-Art.com. She is a faculty member at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division, Stony Brook /Killer Film's MFA Film Program and NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she teaches classes on directing actors.