Shelley was born into a family of Choctaw storytellers in small-town Oklahoma (population 700). A self-proclaimed hillbilly, she experienced major culture shock when she moved to Milan and made a living being tall and hungry. She then moved to LA where she took her modeling stories to the stage and the page. She’s toured alongside Wayne Brady, doing both standup and improv and acted in everything from soap operas to multicams. 

In 2020, Shelley was one of four selected for the Native American Showrunner program. She became a Staff Writer on Spirit Rangers at Netflix, was in the 2021 Disney General Entertainment Writing Program, and is currently writing for her second season as a Story Editor on The Conners at ABC.