Adrienne Shelly Indie actress/writer/director Adrienne Shelly was born Adrienne Levine on June 16, 1966, in Queens, New York. Shelly was raised on Long Island and enjoyed playing baseball as a youngster. When she was just twelve years old, her father passed away, and Shelly took on his first name as her new surname. Shelly began acting when she was ten years old at a performing arts camp and while attending high school, she landed her first professional acting gig in a summer stock production of Annie. Shelly went on to study at Boston University before getting a start in independent film making. Shelly made her film debut in Hal Hartley’s The Unbelievable Truth in 1989, which earned her positive reviews. The following year, she garnered more acclaim in Hartley's Trust. By 1991, she had been named one of twelve Promising New Actors of 1991 in John Willis' Screen World, Volume 43. Following her auspicious start in Hartley films, Shelly began to make inroads writing and directing. She directed the 1994 short Urban Legend, followed by her feature debut as a self-obsessed New Yorker in the comedy Sudden Manhattan (1996). After starring in the 1998 romantic indie-drama Wrestling with Alligators, Shelly wrote, directed and starred in the romantic comedy I'll Take You There in 1999.
In 2000, Shelly’s directorial efforts were recognized with a Film Discovery Jury Award for I'll Take You There at the annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. That same year, she also took home the Prize of the City of Setúbal - Special Mention for the film at the Festróia -Tróia International Film Festival in Setúbal. After acting in a string of films with indie actors during the beginning of the new millennium, Shelly starred alongside bigger box-office stars such as Marisa Tomei and Matt Dillon in the 2005 drama, Factotum. In November of 2006, Shelly was found dead in the New York City apartment she shared with husband, Andy Ostroy. Although her death initially appeared to be a suicide, police soon arrested nineteen-year-old construction worker Diego Pillco, after he confessed to her murder. The teen had been one of the last people seen entering the fourth floor Greenwich Village apartment that Shelly and her husband had been renovating. Pillco admitted to a gruesome murder, fighting with Shelly and eventually tying a sheet around her neck and dragging her to the bathroom where he then hung her from a shower curtain rod.
Shelly’s last project was the film Waitress, which she wrote and directed. Starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, the film is scheduled for release in 2007. Shelly and husband Andy Ostroy had one child together, three-year-old daughter, Sophie. YUDDY |
