Hello! My name is Sharee (Shuh-ree) Silerio (Suh-larry-oh) and I’m a St. Louis born and raised filmmaker who tells coming-of-age, self-discovery, and real-life stories where Black women and girls exist as full human beings on screen and feel seen, heard, loved, and affirmed beyond the screen.

My desire to make sure Black women and girls feel accepted and valued through my work comes from my personal experiences moving to a predominately white neighborhood after living in a predominately Black neighborhood.

One day, when I was a child, I sat on my parents’ bed, with my eyes closed, reveling in the warmth of the sun’s rays shining on my face. In that picture perfect moment, I was also praying to God, begging for my skin to miraculously become lighter. When I woke up the next morning and looked in the mirror, a knot of anxiety grew in the pit of my belly. I had to survive another day as me.

It didn’t help that a white classmate told me “You’re ugly because you’re black”, or that the kids who looked like me called my “burnt”, “crispy”, and “ugly” among other things. Unfortunately, I received everything everyone said about me as truth, so to protect myself, I withdrew from those around me. Thankfully, I had an outlet.

Watching movies, music videos, and sitcoms became my refuge. Expressing myself through poetry; videotaping myself lip syncing and dancing to my favorite music; reciting monologues on the family camcorder; and recording my sister act out scenes of a horror film I wrote allowed me to be and see myself.

In college, I was the first Black reporter and anchor for the campus TV news program, and my interests in writing and film merged when I took film classes and wrote my first screenplay. After college, I became an intern at STL TV, where I was quickly promoted to a producer and helped write and launch an entertainment news show.

A few years later, I was selected out of over 100 applicants to participate in Continuity’s inaugural media training program, where I produced several three-to-four-minute short documentaries.

One of the short docs I created as a participant in the cohort – The Mountains That Made Me – was selected for the 18th Annual St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase plus invited to screen at the 27th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival as part of the Doc Shorts: Black Voices line up.

After graduating from Continuity’s program, I worked as a Production Assistant on projects such as Rhythm + Flow (Netflix), The Disappearance of Phoenix Coldon (Oxygen), Hart of the City: St. Louis (Comedy Central), The Busch Family Brewed (MTV), and more.

My first crew-produced, crowd-funded documentary, a short titled Black Girl, Bleu, was completed in 2020. It has been selected to screen at film festivals across the U.S., including the African American Film Marketplace and S.E. Manly Short Film Showcase, the Denton Black Film Festival, The Micheaux Film Festival, the BronzeLens Film Festival, and the Imagine This Women’s International Film Festival.

“Black Girl, Bleu” has won multiple film festival awards, from Outstanding Special Programming (The Micheaux Film Festival) to Best Mental Health Promotion (Believe Psychology Film Festival), and an Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Short (St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase).

In 2020, I launched 11 Stars Studios, a film, television, digital and streaming production company that houses all my heart-born projects.

From documentaries to digital series’ and narrative films, my mission is to use intimate and authentic storytelling to explore the depth, reality, gifts, magic, and beauty of being Black. My dream is to continue telling stories that move audiences to confront biases, cultivate empathy, and encourage vulnerability.

Before becoming a director and filmmaker, Sharee worked as a production assistant and helped launch and produce two entertainment television programs for STL TV and executive produced and/or produced a digital series, narrative short, teen talk show, documentary feature and more for other networks and independent creators.

She has also written feature stories, entertainment news and reviews, and wellness pieces for publications such as The St. Louis American, The Root.com, 21Ninety, CurlyNikki.com and Gazelle Magazine.

An enthusiastic student of life, I have an MA in media communications from Webster University as well as a BA in communication with a film studies certificate from St. Louis University. I was born, raised and currently live in St. Louis, MO.