Shay Bennett’s career has taken many forms.
Shay Bennett’s first acting opportunity was in second grade, and she took her lines seriously. The Buckhead-based actor, producer and entrepreneur grew up in Pensacola, Florida, and begrudgingly accepted a boy’s part in the class play thanks to her mother’s encouragement. After a neighbor loaned her some clothes, Bennett looked in the mirror and got right into character. “I rehearsed my lines to death,” she says.
Though her performance was praised, she didn’t initially set her sights on acting. Instead, she pondered going to college for accounting until her mother, always wise, reminded her that she loved traveling and might appreciate a flexible career. So Bennett enrolled in cosmetology school, a serendipitous move that led her to live in cities such as San Francisco, London and Paris, where she decided it was time to revisit her creative side and take a few acting workshops. She then moved to New York and enrolled with HB Studio in Greenwich Village.
“I decided to move to Los Angeles after that and did a couple of stage plays, but I couldn’t sing,” she says. “That’s when I decided on TV.”
Her first TV audition was for Aaron Spelling, creator of “Beverly Hills 90210.” To her delight, she got a callback and was cast as a nurse in the 12th episode of the eighth season, “Friends in Deed.” “I accidentally sat in Spelling’s chair, and he didn’t even mind,” she shares. “He was very kind.”
From there, her acting career took off. She met Holly MacConkey on the set of the movie Witchcraft, and the producer invited her to learn a different side of the camera. At first, Bennett hesitated. She had a busy week already, two shows and a commercial, but she agreed to meet in MacConkey’s office. The pair worked together for six months until MacConkey’s death in 1996. “She taught me everything she knew,” Bennett says. “She made me a producer.”
With her new perspective on the industry, Bennett began writing films and TV shows. Eventually, she left Los Angeles for Atlanta and has called the city home since 2012. One of her first ventures to get to know her new neighborhood, which at the time was Sandy Springs, was hosting a free camp for kids about the entertainment industry. “I wanted to prepare them for whatever they wanted to do in life,” she says.
Since moving to Buckhead, Bennett has stayed busy with acting and making connections. On sets around the city, she met the colleagues who would become part of her crew for “Seriously Courtney,” a TV script she wrote during the pandemic. The show is about a high school senior and her friends living in Buckhead and features goalball, a sport for visually impaired athletes. She expects shooting to begin this spring.
Atlanta’s role in the film and TV industry, according to Bennett, could be less about business coming from places like Los Angeles and more about it originating here. She’s doing her part to make that happen, writing shows like “Seriously Courtney” and collaborating with local talent. “Most of the acting work I’ve done in Atlanta wasn’t made by Atlantans,” she says. “We need more homegrown content.”
@shaybennett_studios
STORY: Denise K. James
PHOTO: Erik Meadows
