Biographie
Born and raised in Northeast Los Angeles to Filipino, Indonesian, Dutch, and Mexican parents, Shea William Vanderpoort has had as diverse an upbringing as he has a filmography. Shea directed The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (2011) executive produced by Pharrell Williams for iamOther. The series starred Issa Rae, special guests such as Donald Glover, and was written and produced by Tracy Oliver (2011-13). Starting as the shows cinematographer, he started to edit as well, then co-direct with Issa, and eventually solely directed and DP'd the end of season 1 and all of season 2.
During ABG, he was also on the road with Kelly Rowland, directing, DPing, and editing her BTS. Shortly after, he began directing the beginnings of Russell Simmons foray into new media (2013). He went on to direct and DP for Ebony featuring Angela Bassett and Magic Johnson (2014). Shea was cinematographer on Bodyslam: Revenge of the Banana! (2015), directed by his longtime collaborator John Paul Horstmann which premiered at Tribeca (2015) and was produced by Ross M. Dinerstein, Glen Zipper, and Morgan Spurlock. His next feature documentary A Classy Broad (2016) was directed by Anne Goursaud and featured Marcia Nasatir, Glenn Close, Lawrence Kasdan, Robert Towne, and many others.
Shea's beginnings came full circle when he shadowed Melina Matsoukas on HBO's Insecure (2016). That same year, he was also a finalist in Justin Lin film competition with Ice Cream Dreams (2016). He went on to direct, DP, and edit segments featured on The IGN Show (2017), L'ATTITUDE's LatinX initiative featuring Zoe Saldaña and Robert Rodriguez, and capping the year by shadowing Tracy Oliver on First Wives Club (2019) (2018). Shea then directed two episodes of First Wives Club (2019) in its 2nd Season (2021). The next show he directed was also the debut of Kirk Franklin to television, working on two episodes of Kingdom Business (2022) (2021). Shea was then brought on to direct the first two episodes of Season 3 of First Wives Club (2019), opening the season. A third episode was also added, playing later in the season (2022).
Over the summer of 2022 Shea directed two episodes of Saturdays (2023) created by Norman Vance Jr. and produced by Marsai Martin as well as two episodes of Tracy Oliver's Harlem (2021) starring Meagan Good and Grace Byers. Harlem was another full circle moment for Shea as it reunited him with Tracy, Pharrell and Mimi Valdes who had all helped launch Awkward Black Girl a decade prior. It is also produced by Amy Poehler and Dave Becky.
Shea was asked back to Harlem to close season 3 (2024). Shea also continues to develop numerous projects surrounding his experience growing up as an Asian-American.
