Frankie Shaw

Frankie Shaw
Shaw in November 2015
Born	Rachel Frances Shaw 1986 (age 29–30)[1] Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actress writer director comedian
Years active	2005–present
Spouse(s)	Zach Strauss (m. 2016)
Children	1

Rachel Frances "Frankie" Shaw (born 1986^[1]) is a Boston-born American actress, writer, director and producer currently based in Los Angeles. She is best known for her short film SMILF, which she wrote, directed and starred in. SMILF premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Short Film Jury Award for US Fiction. She is also known for her recurring role as Shayla Nico in the first season of the USA Network television series Mr. Robot.

Career

Shaw first received recognition in the completely improvised Sundance film The Freebie and then as the oddball drunken cheerleader in the sitcom Blue Mountain State. Since then, she has appeared in independent movies including The Pretty One and Someone Marry Barry.

Shaw's short film SMILF, which she wrote, directed and starred in, won the 2015 Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction at Sundance.^[2] Shaw has used the film as a platform to develop a TV show and discuss the role of women on screen.^[3] She explained: "While men react with shock and awe when their screen shows a woman giving herself a quick intimate wipe down prior to a date or when a woman with cellulite bares all, we know it's not raunch. It's not groundbreaking. It's just our life–dirty, imperfect and real."^[3]

In 2015, SMILF was picked up by Showtime as a half-hour comedy television show with Shaw as writer, director, star, and producer.^[4] The show will "examine[] the travails of a young woman (Shaw) who comes to LA as both a struggling actress and a struggling single mom."^[4]

Shaw returned to Sundance in 2016 with another short film she wrote and directed, Too Legit, starring Zoë Kravitz, Teresa Palmer, Nate Corddry and Clark Gregg. Too Legit was a satire of Congressman Todd Akin's controversial 2012 remarks about rape and pregnancy: "It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, [rape resulting in pregnancy is] really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down."^[5] Shaw explained:

[T]he way I see rape culture and sexism, the sexualization and the de-humanizing of women in this culture in general is such a systemic problem and it starts so young. It starts, you know, with images shown to kids my son's age and younger. And all of that in my opinion leads to this epidemic of violence towards women. And it's just existing and we're all sort of going along with it. All the advertisements, and the naked women everywhere, we are numb to it. I think it has this tragic effect. There was a study at the University of North Dakota . . . they said "if you could force a girl to have sex with you, would you?" and like 30 or 40% said yes. But then they asked "would you rape a girl" and they all said "no."^[6]

Shaw had a recurring role on the television series Mr. Robot, where she plays Shayla Nico, the drug dealing love interest of Rami Malek's character Elliot Alderson. She also served as a series regular on ABC's Mixology and in the ABC Family pilot Tough Cookie and appeared on Fox's Mulaney, HBO's Hello Ladies, and the movie Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland, reprising her role of Mary Jo from the 2010 series.

Personal life

Shaw grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.^[7] She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University with a degree in literature,^[7] then moved to Los Angeles where she currently lives.

Shaw was in a relationship with actor Mark Webber. They have a son together, Isaac Love (born circa 2008). On August 27, 2016, Shaw married writer-producer Zach Strauss.^[8]

Filmography

TV shows

Film

References

External links

• Frankie Shaw at the Internet Movie Database