Colette Weber Shaw (b. 1999) is an award-winning Playwright and artist based in New York. Colette’s writing explores themes of magical realism, young adults struggling with identity, and personal transformation. Her play How Not to be a Junkyard Dog, a coming of age story about a group of young surfers trying to find a lost dog, won the national 2018 Young Playwright’s Festival produced by the Blank Theater and performed at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood. She was a 2019 Semi-Finalist for the Young Playwright’s Festival and a Semi-Finalist in 2018 for the 35th Annual California Young Playwrights Contest for her play, The Night Shade Family, another coming of age story about a teenage girl grappling with her grandmother’s dementia diagnosis. In the summer of 2019, Colette co-produced August Fest, hosted by Off Stage Works at the Young Actors Studio in North Hollywood. In addition to producing the festival, she had her play Cervus Canadensis performed in a full production as well as directing another playwrights’ work at the festival.
Born in Los Angeles to professional artists Jim Shaw and Marnie Weber, Colette made first her on-screen debut at four years old as a cherubic angel in the iconic feature film, Day Is Done (2006), by world renowned artist Mike Kelley. Shaw would later star opposite of her artist mother in an independent feature film, The Day of Forevermore (2016), where she plays a young witch struggling to free herself from the burden of caring for her aging and delusional mother.
Colette Weber Shaw is currently studying at Sarah Lawrence College, and previously attended The National Theater Institute, The New School Summer Filmmaking Intensive, and California State Summer School of the Arts at CalArts. Shaw is an award winning playwright as well as an experienced filmmaker and actor. She has worked on film productions with HBO/Jane Doe Films and Chain Camera Pictures. Recently, Shaw was a Teaching Assistant for the Film Department at CSSSA, where she taught a character development workshop. She is currently a member of the New Works Lab at Off Stage Works and serves as Co-President of the Screenwriter’s Workshop at Sarah Lawrence College.