In 2010, Shana Betz began her directing career when she received a grant to write and direct a film for the Girls! Girls! Girls! Project, an anthology of shorts about women, by women. Soon after, she was selected to participate in the exclusive 2011 Film Independent Directors Lab with her script, “Free Ride” based on her life story as the daugh... Read More

In 2010, Shana Betz began her directing career when she received a grant to write and direct a film for the Girls! Girls! Girls! Project, an anthology of shorts about women, by women. Soon after, she was selected to participate in the exclusive 2011 Film Independent Directors Lab with her script, “Free Ride” based on her life story as the daughter of a drug runner. She went on to film the feature starring Anna Paquin, Drea De Matteo and Cam Gigandet (HBO 2015). Her second feature, a thriller starring Richard Roundtree (Shaft) is currently in post-production. In 2013, Shana dove into the Motion Capture world by working as the Stunt Ape Wrangler on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. There she worked alongside Peter Jackson's world-renowned VFX company, WETA Digital, where she coordinated communication between the stunt apes and all production departments while gaining extensive knowledge of motion capture production, application and technology. Though Shana began as an actress, she found her early producer footing as the Executive Director of the MVPA, the premiere trade association for the music video industry. There, while overseeing the establishment of union contracts, she Executive Produced the annual MVPA Awards where she worked with the top creative minds in the industry. During this time, she also Executive Produced the Director’s Cuts Film Festival, a cutting-edge film festival of short films by the top music video directors, which became the poaching ground for the next big feature director. Here, she oversaw production, design elements and acted as curator of the film series. Her duties included creating corporate partnerships with Universal Studios, Sony Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, Eastman Kodak, Fuse, and MTV amongst others. After leaving the MVPA, Shana produced many short format projects, including The Stranger, which won the Eastman Kodak New Filmmaker Award. She honed her acting and comedic voice while performing with Tim Robbins’ world renowned ensemble, The Actors’ Gang, in Los Angeles where she toured the country as the only female in George Orwell’s 1984. In 2009/10, Betz partnered with Robbins to program and produce the WTF?! Festival and Axis Mundi Series -- over 40 music, literature and film events with Tenacious D, Gore Vidal, Sarah Silverman, Jackson Browne, Jenny Lewis, Paul Provenza, Ben Gibbard, John Doe and many more. In love with all things theater, Shana collaborated with Lindsley Allen (original Pussycat Doll) to produce the show, Cherry Boom Boom, a dance revue at the renowned Tropicana on the Las Vegas strip. She is currently attached to two features, Black Belle, a revenge film set in the post civil war west starring Josh Hartnett and Keke Palmer and The Mean Tide, a crime drama set in Louisiana. Read Less