Shawn Holmes

Shawn Holmes (born DeShawn Holmes on September 25, 1986 in Wheeling, WV) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is the writer, director, producer, and editor of the prize-winning science-fiction film Memory Lane (2012) which was his debut feature film. Since 2011, Holmes has been the youngest nominee in history for the West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year award. Critics have compared his directing style to David Fincher and Christopher Nolan. Holmes' trademarks include non-linear storytelling and extremely tight pacing. Holmes was born in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1986 to a sixteen year old single mother. He was raised in Martins Ferry, Ohio. He attended The Linsly School in Wheeling, WV. After high school, Holmes briefly attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where his mentor was actor and director Barry Primus. For his independent film Memory Lane (2012), Holmes wrote, directed, produced, and edited. The film world-premiered on May 6, 2012 at the Sci-Fi-London film festival in London, England and was funded by Holmes with a budget of less than three-hundred dollars. Of the film, Holmes stated that he was inspired to create Memory Lane after his friend Michael Guy Allen returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Filming took place in Martins Ferry, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia. The film was distributed in North America by Wild Eye Releasing and world-wide by Monster Pictures. In 2017, Holmes began doing editing work for acclaimed actress Tasha Smith and producer Lee Daniels. In April, 2018, Holmes appeared on WTRF-TV to announce a fundraiser to begin pre-production on his second feature film, a crime thriller called The Knife Salesman, for which the screenplay had been honored in 2014 as a finalist in the Script Pipeline 5th Great Movie Idea Contest.