Shawn Christopher Lovell Nabors

Shawn Christopher Lovell Nabors is a multidisciplinary artist; an actor, writer and musician from Brooklyn, N.Y. He was first introduced to the arts through his father, a creative himself who taught Shawn how to write songs and short films. As a child, Shawn could be found carrying around a small blue briefcase packed to the rim with songs he'd written. While other kids were rough housing or playing with action figures, Shawn was quietly crafting tales; totally immersed in his imagination. At just 14, Shawn's short story, "The Hard Way", was selected as the winner of Select Media's The Hear Me Project where it was turned into a short film that featured the voiceover talent of Wanda Sykes. The film is still being shown in schools around the country to educate students about sexual health and the importance of getting tested. Around the same time, Shawn began participating in a program then called City at Peace, where inner city teens would come together to create a musical based on the issues and traumas that plagued many of their lives. This program exposed Shawn to the harsh realities of queer youth in this country and laid the foundation for utilizing art as a platform for activism, enlightenment and social change. Shawn followed this fire to Syracuse University where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting. At Syracuse, Shawn was able to play a wide range of characters that spanned from an ill and impoverished young man named Lloyd in Maria Irene Fornes' play, "Mud" to an eloquently skilled yet sensitive and brooding con man, Winfield Davis in "Indulgences in a Louisville Harem". Right after completing Syracuse, Shawn participated in the Araca Projects where he wrote, produced and starred in his first original play, "Cake" at The American Theatre of Actors Off-Broadway in New York City. During the next two years Shawn would perform in many new works such as play readings and workshops at The La Mama Theatre and The New York Thespis Festival. In 2014, Shawn starred as Bobby in the play "The Lost or How to Just Be" as a part of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity where he was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical, Play with Music or Musical Event. In an effort to be pushed even further as an artist and as an actor, Shawn would go on to earn his MFA in Acting from Harvard University where he also attained a three month residency at the Moscow School for the Arts in Moscow, Russia. Graduate school allowed Shawn to stretch and dive into even meatier roles such as Rapper Omar/Desmond in Young Jean Lee's "The Shipment" and Aristarkh Dominicovich Grand-Skubick in the Russian dramedy "Dying For It". As a student at the renowned American Repertory Theatre on Harvard's campus, Shawn was forever impacted by Artistic Director Diane Paulus whose pledge to "expand the boundaries of theatre" continues to inspire Shawn to do so in his own work to this day. In 2016, his sophomore play, "America, and the Adventures of Nat Turn-Up" received developmental readings at The Atlantic Theatre Company and as a part of the Act/Now Foundation's New Voices in Theatre program. The play follows a young aspiring rapper and political prisoner as he returns home to start anew only to find that his issues with police have only just begun. Next, Shawn was a 2017/2018 Playwriting Resident with The Liberation Theatre Company where he developed his latest play, "From Out Beyond My Shame", a look into the life of an aspiring journalist seeking revenge against the rising football phenomenon who once sexually abused him. This play serves as the first part of his trilogy titled "The Ancestor Plays" where he explores the notion of shame experienced by black and queer people throughout history. In 2017 & 2018 respectively, Shawn also participated in two New Works Labs through The Fire This Time Festival where he began developing his play, "Shockoe Bottom", the second part of his trilogy and "In Summer" his first original feature film. Also in 2017, Shawn fulfilled a childhood dream by releasing his debut mixtape, "GATEKEEPERS" a Hip Hop/R&B manifesto under his middle name, Christopher Lovell. Afropunk, an annual arts festival that includes live music, film, fashion, and art produced by black artists, wrote on their online publication that in the mixtape, Shawn (Christopher Lovell) "delivers introspective and uplifting affirmations about self-acceptance and fighting your way forward that anybody can relate to." That same year, alongside graduate school classmate, Sharlee Taylor, Shawn co-produced and launched a sketch comedy web-series titled "The Sharlee/Shawnee Show" and co-founded Color Coded Productions, a company whose goal is to bring meaningful and compelling work by artists of color to the forefront of mainstream media. In the summer of 2018, Shawn took a complete leap of faith and moved cross country to Los Angeles to further pursue his goal of acting professionally in film and television. As a new member of HarvardWood, Harvard's alumni association, Shawn most recently completed a TV Pilot Writing program where he developed the pilot for his new show, "Smedium" which follows the journey of Dontavion, a graduate African American studies historian and aspiring genealogist whose life is turned upside down when he begins to see ghosts after his 28th birthday. Shawn hopes to play and continue to create compelling, influential and memorable characters on film, screen and stage that linger in our collective consciousness and that leave a lasting impact on the industry and in the world in some positive and enriching way.