Helen Shaver

Helen Shaver is a Canadian film and television actress, director and producer. She was born in St. Thomas, Ontario on February 24th, 1951. Helen first discovered acting as a teenager when she attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and later at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Career
Helen's first professional acting work was playing a character named Bonnie on the "Death Holds the Scale" episode of the Canadian drama series Police Surgeon. Her first sci-fi work came along five years later when she played Betty Duncan in the 1977 film Starship Invasions. In 1983, she appeared in the "The Shadow of Truth" episode of T.J. Hooker, which starred famed Star Trek actor William Shatner. She played a character named Karen in the "Mirror, Mirror" episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In 1988, Helen Shaver appeared on "The Emissary", a season two episode of Ray Bradbury Theater where she played a character named Miss Haight. Season three of the series marked Helen's directorial debut in the genre, beginning with the 1998 episode "Last Supper". She also directed "Lithia", "Phobos Rising", "What Will the Neighbors Think?", "Star Crossed" and "Simon Says". In 1995, Helen Shaver had several key roles both before and behind the camera in the relaunch of the sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits. She appeared in the pilot episode of the series, "Sandkings", as a character named Cathy Kress.

In 1996, Helen Shaver played a character named Kate "White" Reilly on the film Aftershocks. Immediately following the release of the film, Helen became part of the ensemble cast of the supernaturally-themed television series Poltergeist: The Legacy where she played a psychiatrist named Doctor Rachel Corrigan from 1996 to 1999. She also directed the episodes "The Bones of Saint Anthony" and "Brother's Keeper" and wrote the screenplay for the season three episode "Seduction". In 2004, Helen directed the second episode of season of The 4400 entitled "The New and Improved Carl Morrisey". She played a minor character in the series named Barbara Yates. Helen had a brief cameo in the series pilot, but was more prominently featured in the third and fourth episode, "Becoming" and "Trial by Fire".

In 2007, she directed the "Winterland" episode of the short-lived time travel series Journeyman and in 2011, she directed the "Seizure" episode of Stargate Universe.

Notes & Trivia

 * Has a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.


 * Was also a producer on twenty-two episodes of the legal drama Judging Amy.


 * The first non-science fiction television episode directed by Helen Shaver was the "Stagecoach Marty" episode of Dead Man's Gun.


 * Her direction of James Earl Jones in Summer's End led to a Best Picture award at the 1999 Chicago International Children's Film Festival and a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Special.


 * In Tremors II: Aftershocks, her character, Kate Reilly, is supposed to be a former Playboy centerfold model for October, 1974. The actual Playmate for October of 1974 was Ester Cordet, a dark-skinned black-haired Panamanian.