Shirley has written for films with a cumulative box office of over half a billion dollars. She has four films slated for production in 2023. Mating Game, a romantic comedy for Radioactive Pictures. Burn, a hip-hop drama for Born Hungry and legal drama Hearts of Stone for Full Circle Productions. She will also be co-producing Love After All, a romantic dramedy through her own River Dreaming Entertainment.

She has developed projects for MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Disney where she worked on projects ranging from the holocaust drama Misha to the animated films Dinosaur, Home on the Range and Meet the Robinsons. John Henry won international film festivals and was a finalist in its category for an Academy Award nomination.

Her adaptation of the opera Aida was source material for Elton John’s successful Broadway production.