Shirley has written for films with a cumulative box office of over half a billion dollars.  She is a co-founder of Australian film production company Magi Pictures with producer and internationally renowned director, Michael Rymer.

She recently delivered a historical sports drama for Ultrafilms and she was script
editor on Wise Goat Productions’ family drama My Eyes which premieres in 2025.
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.

Shirley wrote the Lena Horne Story for Sony and ABC (America), the BET thriller
Incognito, TNT’s Passing Glory for Quincy Jones and the racially charged Colour of
Rage for the USA network. Shirley also wrote the romantic drama For Real and the
erotic thriller Spirit Lost for Tim Reid’s New Millennium Studios.

She also worked on WWE’s The Marine starring John Cena, a wartime romance for
Hard Rock Entertainment, co-wrote an adaptation of a Tuscany romance novel for
Intomedia and a Gen Z 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 successful anti-bullying music video
Free You Be You which was nominated for a Heart of Gold award.

Shirley has written for studios in the U.S., Australia, Japan and Spain. She has
developed projects for MGM and Sony. Other credits include the urban drama
Hothouse Flowers, the TV teen drama Kaleidoscope for Caravel Pictures, the story
for thriller Murder on the Reef for Wonderland Media and an adaptation of romance
novel Seducing Mr. Maclean. Shirley has also written for the ABC (Australia), the
Nine Network and producers Trish Lake, Matt Carroll and Chris Brown.

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

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