Hi! I’m Shayna. I write, curate, and critique film, television, and theater, with a special interest in queer rep.

Thanks to how integral mainstream representation was to my own sense of self before I had the ability to find a physical community, I’m devoted to making authentic LGBTQ+ stories accessible to LGBTQ+ people. This could be through festival or repertory programming, digital campaigns, written criticism, fiction film development, independent preservation projects, documentary research and coordination, or ripping the skin of my hand while curtain-operating before hundreds of fans breathless in anticipation of their favorite queer artist and activist. For my queer media involvement, I've been a recipient of GLAAD's Rising Star​ Grant for Media Advocacy, and featured by The Advocate and teenVogue. 

In addition to critiquing and forwarding others’ art, I also create my own stuff! That includes a short documentary which premiered at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles, two one-act musicals produced through UCLA’s Directing Continuum and Dually Noted Theatre Co, a queer full-length production of Taming of the Shrew directed for the Shakespeare Company at UCLA, short monologues for the V-Day at UCLA Coalition, a full-length play currently in the works, and an ongoing podcast I co-host about the queer possibilities of magic in media. 

As enthusiastic as amazing queer art can make me, inauthentic queer representation motivates me just as much. I don’t love all queer media — not by a long shot. I do, however, love the opportunity every representation affords: the ability to look more deeply at what we think LGBTQ+ identity is, how we see ourselves, and whether we will accept the barometer of tolerance and acceptance presented by a commercial industry. 

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Please feel free to reach out for anything; curated lists of queer films, coverage of queer film + TV, ethical consulting on your latest script, or a very bad dad joke. 

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