 Profile
Director/writer Shira-Lee Shalit’s talent first began to draw national attention as early as her senior year of high school, when she won the National Foundation for Advancement in The Arts Award in Drama. This award qualified Shira-Lee for the prestigious Presidential Scholar of the Arts Award, which she later won, presented to her by The President of the United States at a ceremony at The White House.
Shira-Lee received her BFA in Drama from New York University, and then her MFA in Directing at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division. While at Columbia, Ms. Shalit's first film, "Full Cycle", was named a Finalist for the Student Academy Awards.
Shalit continued to draw critical acclaim for her talents and various film projects and in May 2007, Shira-Lee was hand-picked by Steven Spielberg out of 12,000 filmmakers as one of 18 Finalists for the Fox/DreamWorks TV show, "On the Lot." While a contestant on the show, Shira-Lee wrote and directed three films, "Beeline", "Open House" and "Check Out", which won her raves reviews from the panel of industry judges - Carrie Fisher, Garry Marshall, Brett Ratner and David Frankel.
Her feature film debut, "A-List", starring Academy Award nominee Sally Kirkland, Daphne Zuniga, Renee Taylor and Damon Shalit, won the Audience Award at the 2007 Milan International Film Festival in Italy, and the Gold Remy Award for Best Comedy at the Worldfest Film Festival in Houston, Texas. "A List" was also one of the IFP East's Project Involve Awardees, and was featured at both the LA Women's Directors Film Fest and the Miami International Women's Director's Festival, among others.
Shira-Lee recently directed the drama, "Open Air", written and produced by David Paterson (writer/producer of Disney’s "Bridge to Terabithia,"
A professor at the New York Film Academy where she teaches Acting for Film and Television and Directing Actors, Shira-Lee also directs the screenplay reading for the WGA East Screenplay Series in New York City. Currently, Shira-Lee is working on her next feature film, a comedy.
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