Shirley Jo Finney is an award-winning director and actress and has directed all over the United States including the McCarter Theater, Pasadena Playhouse, The Goodman Theater, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, Crossroads Theater Company, Actors’ Theater of Louisville Humana Festival, The Mark Taper Forum, The American College Theatre Festival and The Sundance Theatre Workshop.

She has also received many awards for her achievements including the prestigious Los Angeles Ovation Nomination for the second time for Best Director for her 2009 critically acclaimed East and West Coast Premier of Sticky.

She premiered a new play based on a children’s book Alice written by Whoopi Goldberg at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC which toured nationally.

She has received the Los Angeles Theater Ovation Award nomination, The NAACP Image Award, Drama Critics, Backstage West and the LA Weekly Award for Best Director for her Production of Yellow Man .

Ms. Finney was also proled and featured in Inniti in Black , a national ad campaign for Inniti. She has directed several episodes of the UPN series, Moesha and has received the International Black Filmakers Award for the short lm, Remember Me. Ms. Finney has directed for the Naked TV project for Fox Television.

In the spring of 2011, Ms. Finney will direct the world premiere of a new musical opera about Winnie Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa.

She is an alumnus of the American Film Institute’s Director Workshop for Women and holds an MFA degree from UCLA. Ms. Finney is also a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the Director’s Guild, and the Screen Actor’s Guild. She has been Artist in Residence at Columbus College in Chicago, and a guest director and lecturer at USC and UCLA. “I Love creating a safe place for the artist to discover their deeper voice.”