BIO
Shane Stanley is a multi-Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author who grew up in/around “the biz” in Hollywood. As a childhood actor he had appeared on-screen in over 100 projects, including with Hollywood legends June Lockhart, Lloyd Haynes, and David Arkin. By age ten, he was comfortably running an Arri 16mm camera, a flatbed-editor, and Moviola.
Along with his father, Lee Stanley, Shane produced The Desperate Passage Series. The docu-drama series ran on KTLA with world-wide syndication from 1988 to 1994, was nominated for 33 individual Emmy Awards, and won 13 statues. Two episodes of the series went on to become successful feature films, Gridiron Gang was acquired by Sony Pictures and became the #1 box office hit starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Shane served as Vice President of Sheen/Michaels Entertainment where he produced several motion pictures starring Marlon Brando, Mira Sorvino, Thomas Hayden Church, Donald Sutherland, Marisa Tomei, Sean Penn, John Travolta, and of course, Charlie and Martin Sheen. During that time, he also began writing and penned several episodes of Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries, edited motion pictures, and created an original television series for Jeff Sagansky, former Head of CBS, before producing Dream Chasers for Discovery Channel - a television adventure program filmed in several different countries in the aftermath of 9/11.
In 2004, Shane made his directorial debut with his own screenplay, A Sight For Sore Eyes. The film was honored with the Special Jury Award at WorldFest Houston, won two Telly Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Film & Television, as well as winning top honors at the International Family Film Festival along with Walden Media’s The Chronicles of Narnia. It went on to win dozens of prestigious awards and was invited to screen at Cannes in 2005.
Shane has also directed countless music videos, many of which have aired on VH1’s Top 20 Video Countdown, including two that went #1 and another that made the network’s list of Best 100 Music Videos including “Go That Far” with Bret Michaels. The Michaels’ video was used for the television series Rock of Love, where Shane also served as a consulting producer. Stanley has also produced and directed national television commercials including campaigns for Morongo Resorts, San Manuel, Westgate Las Vegas, Kimberly Clark, Snapple, Virgin Airways, Sony PlayStation, and mega-hit gaming franchise “Call of Duty.” Other credits to his name include The Untold Story, Break Even, and Mistrust, starring two-time Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Jane Seymour, that premiered on Showtime.
In 2022, Shane produced and directed the action-comedy, Double Threat starring Matthew Lawrence and Dawn Olivieri (Yellowstone, 1883), which The New York Times listed on their Top 5-Action Movies to Stream Now and was the sole indie feature amongst Hollywood blockbusters on Amazon Prime's “Top 10 in the US” list remaining there for several weeks and peaking at #4. In 2023, Shane’s action-thriller, Night Train, starring Danielle C. Ryan and Diora Baird premiered on HULU where it reached #1 on the platform and remained in the top spot for an astonishing four weeks. Night Train is the story of a single mom struggling to make ends meet as a Hollywood teamster who evades capture by a ruthless FBI Agent while running black market medical supplies in her legendary souped-up pickup truck. It also stars Joe Lando, Ivan Sergei, and Joseph D. Reitman.
Currently, Shane is in post-production on Six Days in Evergreen a music-drama starring Dawn Olivieri, Penelope Ann Miller, A Martinez, and a star-studded cast which he produced, directed, and co-wrote. Academy Award® winner, Paul Williams is Executive Producer.
His best-selling book, “What You Don’t Learn in Film School” has earned a 4.5-star rating across the board landed on The 20 Best Filmmaking Audiobooks of All-Time, which covers filmmaking from concept to delivery. It has landed on required reading lists at several universities around the world and is endorsed by some of the most respected names in Hollywood including Producer, Neal H. Moritz, (Fast & Furious, S.W.A.T., 21 and 22 Jump Street) and Paul Williams, Oscar®, Golden Globe® and Grammy® Award Winner and Hall of Fame songwriter.
In addition to his Emmy Awards, Stanley has received 11 Telly Awards, 2 CINE Golden Eagles Awards, 5 Aurora Awards, 4 WorldFest Remi Awards, and 28 International Film Festival Awards. He has spoken at several prestigious film and art institutes around the country including The Screen Writers Expo, the world’s largest tradeshow for screenwriters, alongside Oliver Stone, Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter franchise), and Adam Herz (American Pie) about the secrets of marketing to today’s youth.
He is on several advisory boards for film schools and art programs across the country and is a contributing columnist for Student Filmmakers Magazine and NoFilmSchool.com as well as a regular lecturer on Stage32.com, FilmCourage.com and IndieFilmHustle.com. Recently, Shane was chosen by several prestigious universities to represent filmmakers to testify before the US Library of Congress to help amend a 1978 copyright law that makes traditional learning difficult for film school students during the COVID/virtual learning era.
He and his wife, actress Val Barri, are active in charities supporting cancer research, restoring hope for inner-city youth, and animal rescue. They live in Los Angeles.