Shalene Portman

A native Texan, Shalene has always been a very creative person, drawing, painting, singing, dance, writing and acting. She says she is actually a business person with a strong creative streak, and as such has written many business plans, ran mortgage companies and negotiated large financial deals. She began her film career on a whim at age 36. On the way to take her mother, Sammie, to the doctor, Sammie suggested that Shalene ought to try her hand at producing movies. Shalene thought about it for all of a few minutes before diving in head first. Shalene swiped her mother's artistic signature for the name of her company, SamiLu Production, and the running joke between them is that if she's wildly successful, Sammie gets all the credit and if she fails miserable, Sammie gets all the credit. Since Shalene is so visual when she writes, it only made sense that she would start leaning towards directing. The transition was a piece of cake and she absolutely loves it. She says that its because she is a storyteller at heart and the medium of film gives her so many tools to bring her stories to life.