Shirley Jo Finney is an award-winning international director and actress.
She has worn her director’s hat in some of the most respected regional
theater houses across the country: including The McCarter Theater, The
Pasadena Playhouse, The Goodman Theater, the Alabama Shakespeare
Festival, the Cleveland Playhouse, the Fountain Theater, LA Theater
Works, the Crossroads Theater Company, Actors Theater of Louisville
Humana Festival, the Sundance Theater Workshop, The Mark Taper
Forum , Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the State Theater in
Pretoria, South Africa.

Miss Finney has received many prestigious awards over the years for her
special talent and eye for storytelling and for creating exciting ensembles.
Her awards include the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award, The Los Angeles
Drama Critics Award, LA Weekly Award, The NAACP and the Santa
Barbara Independent awards for her directing work. Miss Finney also helmed the acclaimed International all South African Opera entitled “Winnie” based on the life of political icon Winnie Mandela.

Most recently Miss Finney directed and developed the critically acclaimed World premiere of Citizen: An American Lyric by the award winning PENN poet Claudia Rankin. Other recent works include Facing Our Truth, The Trayvon Martin Project at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles, the Lark Foundations rolling world premier of The Road Weeps by Marcus Gardley at the Los Angeles Theater Center and Tarell McCraney’s Brother/Sisters Plays.

Miss Finney is also and established television and film director. She has
directed several episodes of “Moesha and she garnered the International
film award for her short film “Remember Me”.

She was honored with the UCLA Department of Stage Film and Television
Distinguished Alumni Award, The Black Alumni Associations Dr. Beverly
Robinson Award for Excellence in the Arts, and The African American Film
Marketplace Award of Achievement for Outstanding Performance and
Achievement and leader in Entertainment.

Miss Finney is an alumnus of the American Film Institute’s Director Workshop for Women and holds an MFA degree from UCLA. She is also a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the Director’s Guild, and the Screen Actor’s Guild. She has also been an Artist in Residence at several colleges and universites including Columbia College in Chicago, UCSB, USC and UCLA.

Miss Finney is also an accomplished actress with many television and film
credits to her name. She is best known for her portrayal in the historic title role of Wilma Rudolph, the first female 3-time gold medalist in the made-for-TV bio picture “Wilma”.