SHELBY BLAKE BARTELSTEIN is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles after living in New York City for the last decade. Originally from the North Shore of Chicago, her love for deep dish pizza, The Cubs, and John Hughes remains sincerely intact. 

Shelby is the 2024 recipient of the prestigious Shondaland Women’s Directing Mentorship, in partnership with SeriesFest, where she shadowed an established director on a Shondaland-produced series. One of Shelby’s TV projects, GOODIES (Escape Artists/MGM), was featured on The Love List 2025 (featuring “The 10 Best Unproduced Romance Scripts in Hollywood”). She’s currently developing a feature with Netflix. Past Film and TV projects span development with Disney, Lionsgate, Hallmark, Chernin Entertainment and more.

Shelby’s narrative debut “Pretty People,” which she penned, directed + starred in, premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival, where she was also selected as one of the five Episodic “Emerging Creators” for Tribeca N.O.W. in partnership with HBO. The feature adaptation of Pretty People will mark Shelby’s feature directorial debut (coming soon).

Shelby’s commercial work spans top brands, including Mazda, Olay, Neutrogena, Acuvue, Tinder, Dove, AXE, Budweiser, Lime-A-Ritas, Stella Artois, Crown Royal, 20th Century FOX, Comcast, Sanofi and more. Shelby created the viral hit “I Can’t Wait to Wash My Face: The Musical!” (Olay, P&G), which premiered on the 2018 MTV VMAs. From its success, Shelby took Olay to Broadway with the original musical “The Road to Glow!”— it starred comedy legend Ana Gasteyer (SNL, Mean Girls), alongside the hottest names on Broadway. 

Shelby is a proud member of the WGA.