Biography

At 17 years of age, Shiona Penrake won Best Young Filmmaker Award at the Reed Short Film Competition, 2014, with her directing debut 'The Paintbrush' (the short version). And at 24, she reached the finals of the 5th Stage 32 Short Competition, 2020, with her next short 'Look Inside'. She now works at an award-winning production company called Future Studios (formerly Barcroft Media) as a video editor, creating short documentaries that has reached over 10 millions viewers across YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat. She has also edited an episode for a documentary series for Discovery+ called 'Unbelievable Me'.

Shiona has been editing since she was seven. After a couple of lessons with editor Stuart Gazzard, a friend of her dad's, she never looked back.

In 2012, a month after her sixteenth birthday, Shiona directed her first short film, 'The Paintbrush', featuring her brother Jay Penrake as the lead, Lois Winstone as the mum and Elio Ruggieri as the dad. The film elicited a round of astonishment and praise from experienced industry professionals and has now been sold to Shorts International for worldwide release.

Through July and August 2012 Shiona was deeply involved in the making of short films 'The Prowler' and 'Bunking Off'. As well as helping in the art department with Photoshop, she worked as a runner on both films and then as editor.

In October 2012 Shiona was one of eighteen 16-18 year-olds to be offered a place at BFI's Film Academy. She and her fellow students were put into three groups of six and she was given the role of director for the horror short they were tasked to make.

In April 2013, she joined 53 16-19-year-old filmmakers on the NFTS Campus course run by the BFI Film Academy. She was given the role of script supervisor on-set and co-editor in post. Her team made the film, 'Teach Me', about a city banker turned social worker who has to face his own anger, frustration and feelings of violence when provoked by an aggressive and manipulative teenager. The film was directed by Rabbia Hussein.

During 2015 Shiona helped her dad, Nic Penrake, with development and pre-production for their short film, 'The Stray', featuring Jay Penrake. Shiona and Nic directed together and edited the picture. In the same year, she edited Matt Browne's short 'The Order' set in IRA-occupied Ireland, which entered the 2017 Belfast Film Festival.

In 2020, Shiona wrote, directed and edited her second short film 'Look Inside' starring Lydia Barnes as Estelle, a lonely teenage girl who discovers the secret to being liked in a surreal, unfriendly world, just as she is about to give up all hope. The film received much praise for its touching message and was selected in the finals of the 5th Annual Stage 32 Short Film Competition.

At Future Studios, she edits documentaries for the Truly channel, boosting its popularity with viral episodes such as 'I Was Swallowed By A Whale', which made it to Good Morning News the day after its release, and the second Miami Muscle series on Snapchat. In the same job, she has edited the crime series 'On The Record' for Marie Claire, and the Discovery+ series 'Unbelievable Me'. After working in the company for over 6 years, Shiona is ready to focus on her passion and seek editing work in HETV and feature films.
- IMDb mini biography by: Shiona Penrake