A native of South Carolina, Shelley graduated from Furman University with a Bachelor of Music degree, hoping one day to be a famous trumpet player. When that didn’t quite work out, she went on to the MFA program at Northwestern University in set design. From Northwestern, Shelley moved to Washington, DC where she was prop master at the Washington Opera for two years before moving to New York City.
After freelancing in New York for a year, she was hired as the prop master at The Manhattan Theater Club, where she stayed for 12 years. While at MTC, she assisted on several Broadway and Lincoln Center plays and musicals. A desire to make more money without having to work six jobs at a time led to a lengthy stint as a decorator on the soap opera, “Guiding Light”, for which she was nominated for three Daytime Emmy awards.
As the popularity of soaps began to dwindle, Shelley was accepted into Local 52, and assisted on several projects, including Ugly Betty and Boardwalk Empire. From there, she went on to decorate several pilots, a few independent films, and the TV shows Unforgettable, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, The Big C, and now, The Blacklist. In her spare time, Shelley trains and hangs out with her two dogs, Homer and Archie.