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Kathleen Ann Shea (born October 9, 1959)" United States Public Records, 1970–2009", database, FamilySearch (23 May 2014), Katt Shea, Residence, Santa Clarita, California, United States; a third-party aggregator of publicly available information. is an American actress, film director, and acting teacher. She is best known for directing the erotic thriller Poison Ivy, which was nominated for the 1992 Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
"I was directing plays I'd written in my back yard when I was twelve", she said later. "I was a total misfit and didn't have any friends, so that's what I did instead. I recruited younger kids from the neighborhood, and their parents paid me to put them in my productions. I made some pretty good money, actually. Helped put me through college. Yay for being a misfit! Yay for not having friends!"
"I was never comfortable being an actress", she said in a 1992 interview. "It was the most ridiculous thing; I am like the antithesis of that. I really, truly am very shy. ... I did it for seven years, and I can't believe I lived through that".
Shea made a number of films for Corman based on scripts by herself and Ruben. Corman later described her as a "talented director. She's particularly good with actors, having been an actress herself. She's taught herself about the camera and has gotten better with each picture."
In a 1990 review of Streets, the Los Angeles Times said Shea "continues to show that she is a first-rate talent, as terrific at handling hard action with style and dispatch as a drawing the best from her casts."
According to Corman, the films she made for him cost less than $500,000 on average and made between $5–10 million. She was then hired by New Line to make Poison Ivy which was a critical and popular hit.
In 1992, her films were honoured with a four-day retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art including the New York premiere of Poison Ivy.Rob Nelson, (March 17, 1999), "Katt in the Director's Chair" City Pages According to Larry Karidish, a curator of film at the museum:
Katt's work is distinctive for its style, rhythm, the progression of its narrative. Her movies touch something deep in the psyche. They have a consistent and coherent sensibility and I thought it would make sense to show her work as a body.
In 2019, she directed Sophia Lillis and Linda Lavin in the feature film Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase for Warner Bros. In 2022, she directed Rescued By Ruby for Netflix.
Between directing jobs, she works as an acting coach, Acting Classes where her past clients have included Christina Applegate, Alison Lohman, Sophia Lillis, and Drew Barrymore.
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