Frankie Shaw

Frankie Shaw became a familiar face to audiences long before she began starring on her own TV series. Born in Boston in 1986, Shaw enrolled at Barnard College in New York City and soon took an interest in film. But without any examples of women writers in her purview, Shaw first approached the business from what she felt was the most obvious angle, as an actor. She began appearing on TV shows such as "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (NBC, 2001-2011) beginning in 2005, and would continue to work over the coming years, co-starring on shows like "Blue Mountain State" (Spike TV, 2010-11), as well as in a number of independent and small-scale films such as "Just Like a Son" (2006), "Explicit Ills" (2008), "The Northern Kingdom" (2009), "Red Hook" (2009), and "The End of Love" (2012).

However, Shaw eventually found herself creatively unfulfilled and with her career stagnant. After she was cast on the short-lived TV series "Mixology" (ABC, 2013-2014), she used the money to pursue an avenue in film she'd never considered before -- writing, directing, and starring in her own short film "SMILF" (2015). The project was a huge success on the festival circuit, and Shaw followed it up with another short film "Too Legit" (2016), this one starring Zoe Kravitz. Then in 2017, Shaw crossed another threshold to major success when she was able to turn "SMILF" into a TV series which she starred in and produced on the Showtime network.