Shira Piven

Shira Piven (born October 8, 1961) is an American director, actress and producer. She directed the 2014 film Welcome to Me starring Kristen Wiig. Early life and education Piven was raised in Evanston, Illinois, a city just north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. Her parents, Joyce Piven and Byrne Piven, founded the Piven Theater Workshop in Evanston. Piven performed with the theater company during her adolescence and started teaching and directing theater in her 20s. She studied drama and music at Bennington College, and graduated in 1983. Piven grew up in a Jewish family Career Piven has directed more than 20 plays in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., including Fully Loaded in 2006, actor Patrick McCartney's one person show Sinister Kid in 2013, and Victims of Duty in 2018. In 1999, she founded the Water Theater Company in New York, and led the improv theater group Burn Manhattan. Piven directed her first feature film, Fully Loaded in 2011, an adaptation of the stage play she co-wrote and directed, about two single mothers on a night out in Los Angeles.