An award-winning performer and 12 season veteran of the hit Canadian series Trailer Park Boys (Barb Lahey), Thompson trained at the UK’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Canadian Film Centre (2015), and was one of the eight Women In the Director’s Chair - Story & Leadership program (2016/17).

She has played roles at the UK’s Royal National Theatre, in London’s West End and British regional Theatres; at the Shaw Festival and across Canada at major theatres. Recent on-screen work Includes Web series like the groundbreaking Tokens (2019); recent television includes the Trailer Park animation and Diggstown (2019). Film work, including working with Jim Henson on Labyrinth, also includes recent award-winning performances in Michael Melski’s The Child Remains and Splinters by Thom Fitzgerald.

Thompson has begun a transition to writer/director, with her short films included in festivals across North America and Europe. Her short Pearls played at over 30 festivals worldwide, winning awards and nominations. Duck Duck Goose, the winner of the FIN Best Atlantic Short accolade for 2018, addresses the culture of fear perpetrated by school lockdowns, and was selected for Telefilm’s Not Short On Talent at Clermont - Ferrand, and for the CBC’s Short Film Faceoff (June 2019) as well as playing major festivals across North America (Miami International FF, Sarasota, Canadian and Kingston Film Festivals) and Europe.

Thompson has been developing TV series with the support of NS producer Terry Greenlaw, who is also producing Thompson’s first dramatic feature, shooting in Nova Scotia in the summer of 2020 - Dawn, Her Dad & The Tractor. The script for DHD &TT won the $200K WIDC Feature Film award in 2018, was selected by the WIFT NYC Writer’s lab supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, and the Breaking Through The Lens Initiative in Cannes.

Based in Halifax/Dartmouth, Thompson is parent to singer/songwriter T. Thomason, and a champion of LGBTQ issues.

Check her out @ShelleyThompson

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