Shira Piven

Shira Piven was the child of theatre people and established herself as an actress and then stage director in Chicago and later in New York, where she was the founder and artistic director of Water Theatre Company between 1999 and 2003. Their hit show Pilgrims was and adapted and directed by Ms. Piven, produced by Mike Nichols and based on 3 short stories from the collection Pilgrims in collaboration with the author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love.) Her first feature film Fully Loaded recently won the audience Favorite Feature award at Palm Beach International Film Festival as well as best Feature at both The River's Edge International and Carmel Art and Film Festivals. It also was featured at the Boston, San Luis Obispo, Talking Pictures and Newport Beach film festivals. It was released by Starz. She recently directed a short documentary on the life of guitar legend Wayne Kramer produced by the award winning filmmaker/producers Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet soon to air on PBS. Shi