Shirley has written for films with a cumulative box office of over half a billion dollars. She has multiple films slated for production in 2025 – including a  hip-hop drama for Born Hungry, and legal drama Hearts of Stone for Full Circle Prods. She has recently delivered work on Maddfilms’ crime drama The Hostage. In 2024, she formed Magi Pictures with Michael Rymer and together they have film and series projects in the pipeline.

Writing for Walt Disney Studios, Shirley worked on over two dozen projects ranging from features Dinosaur, Home on the Range and Meet the Robinsons to the Holocaust drama Misha. The short, John Henry, which she wrote for Disney, won international film festivals and was shortlisted in its category for the Academy Awards. Her screen adaptation of the opera Aida was source material for Elton John’s successful Broadway production.

Prior to delivering a wartime romance for Hard Rock Entertainment, she also co-wrote an adaptation of a Tuscany romance for Intomedia and a millennial love story for Radioactive Pictures.

Shirley wrote and produced the short film No Means which was an official selection at five international film festivals including festivals in Los Angeles, Melbourne and New York. She also wrote and co-produced the anti-bullying music video Free You Be You which was nominated for a Heart of Gold award.

Shirley wrote for ABC and the Nine Network plus producers Trish Lake, Matt Carroll and Chris Brown. Shirley’s TV movies include the Lena Horne Story for ABC, Black Entertainment Television’s thriller Incognito, TNT’s Passing Glory for Quincy Jones and family drama Colour of Rage.  She was production writer for WWE’s The Marine starring John Cena.

Shirley has written for studios in the U.S., Australia, Japan and Spain. She has delivered projects for MGM, Columbia, Fox and Sony. She’s also written for BET, New Millennium Studios and Quincy Jones.

Shirley has also developed projects for Stephen J. Cannell, NBC, Proctor and Gamble, Hanna Barbera, Crawfords and the Australian Children’s Television Fund. Her stage comedy Lullaby Eve has been staged in N.Y., Los Angeles and Sydney.

She also lectures on screenwriting at film festivals, film schools and universities.