The career of Helen Shaver is really a story of three careers, two in front of and one behind the camera. Shaver has had acting roles in such films as Who Has Seen the Wind, In Praise of Older Women, Amityville Horror, The Osterman Weekend, Desert Hearts, The Color of Money, and Bethune: The Making of a Hero, to television roles in the series United States, Jessica Novak, WIOU, Poltergeist: The Legacy, and The Education of Max Bickford.
It was for Poltergeist that she stepped behind the camera to direct several episodes. She has become an in-demand director and has helmed series such as The Outer Limits, The O.C., Judging Amy, Flashpoint, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Combat Hospital, Revolution, Person of Interest, and Orphan Black.
Her first television movie, Summer’s End (1999), a family film starring James Earl Jones and Wendy Crewson, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding directing in a children’s special.
She continues her television directing efforts on this season’s Vikings which will kick off our conversation, before exploring some of the art and craft of storytelling with Helen Shaver.
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