Shayna Cohen

Shayna is a filmmaker from St. Louis. She fell in love with movies at the age of 10 when her father snuck her into a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Blanketed in the cool, dark air of the Shady Oak, she knew something magical was happening. “Rocky Horror” managed to bring different types of people together: It could make people laugh and dance and throw things at the screen in mass hysteria. As her brain synapses fired all at once, she knew this is what films were meant to do: to inspire your senses to feel hunger, frenzy, love, or lust. Attending American University for her undergraduate degree, Shayna focused on documentary filmmaking. Her documentary work was largely influenced by the 2008 presidential election and local subcultures. Moving to the West Coast, she went to Chapman University’s graduate film-production program and won a Student DGA award in November 2014 for her thesis film, “Gefilte Fish.” Since then, Shayna has written and directed multiple projects that have taken her around the world, including India, China, and Israel. After working at Nickelodeon for the TV shows “iCarly” and “Victorious,” Shayna moved over to DreamWorks Animation in the story/edit department. Almost a decade later, Shayna is the development supervisor for theatrical feature films. While Shayna helps develop films for DreamWorks, she continues to write and develop her own personal projects.