I'm Angela Shelton ~ Rebel with a Cause

This is my personal site where I share what I’ve learned as a rule-breaking entrepreneur to inspire and empower you to think outside the box and be the best you can be too.

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Angela Shelton is an acclaimed filmmaker, writer, actress and public speaker. Read Angela’s Story and a Q&A below.

Angela has spoken in Congress, universities, military bases, high schools, elementary schools, community centers, conferences and seminars worldwide. Her multi-award winning film Searching for Angela Shelton put a spotlight on sexual abuse and domestic violence and began a grassroots movement of healing for abuse survivors worldwide.  The United States Justice Department presented Angela with a certificate of appreciation for her hard work on behalf of crime victims.  She was presented with the Voice of Courage award from Darkness to Light, an organization with the goal of ending childhood sexual abuse. The mayor of Asheville, NC made April 29th Angela Shelton Day in honor of all abuse survivors.  Angela has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, 48 Hours Investigates, NPR, Lifetime Television for Women and the cover of the New York Times. Angela’s memoir, Finding Angela Shelton, is mandatory reading in many Women’s Studies programs.  Angela became a Superhero for children and won an Emmy for her performance in The Safe Side video series created by Baby Einstein’s Julie Clark.  Angela’s mission is to inspire and empower people to heal and lead joyful lives.

Angela has appeared at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and is also a regular on Comedy Nation and the Free Speech Show.

If you are with the press please contact pr@angelashelton.com

Searching for Angela Shelton is too important, too meaningful, too touching, TOO TERRIFIC to been seen casually. From the first frame to the last I was in turn riveted, weepy, drained, shattered, hopeful…and plenty of other emotions in between. You are one remarkable, talented lady. It took enormous courage, persistence, and honesty to pull this off. Most importantly, you managed to keep your sense of humor, and at the same time show a willingness to forgive. What an unbeatable combo! Congratulations! This film should be shown in every home, in every country, in the world. Bravo! Jake Eberts, producer

Angela Shelton on Larry King Live
Angela Shelton CNN
Angela was interviewed by Dr. Phil on the Larry King Show.

Read Angela’s presskit – online EPK

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Print & TV

Angela has also appeared on:

    To bring Angela to your community for a live event or fundraiser contact events@angelashelton.com.

Angela Shelton’s Story

Angela Shelton

Angela Shelton has broken the mold since the day she was born. She was given a 50/50 chance to live when she was born full term at a measly 4lbs 4oz. She survived being in an incubator and ended up growing to 5′10″ and wears a size 10 shoe.

Angela Shelton grew up in the South in a trailer with her mom and dad. Angela’s mother adamantly refused to work so she could stay at home with Angela for her first three years. Angela claims that this is the reason she is sane today. When Angela was three her father left her mother for her mother’s best friend. Angela went to live with her father and his new wife who has two kids because her dad and his new family were the “perfect American family” including a white picket fence. Angela’s father went to church, was well liked, handsome and charming. Angela was sexually and physically abused, along with her step-siblings, by her father for five years until she was removed from his home by the Department of Social Services and placed into foster care. The story of Angela’s childhood and her inspirational journey from victim to survivor is in her book, Finding Angela Shelton.

Angela Shelton Angela’s mother got custody of Angela again when Angela was eight. Her mother built her a kitchen by remodeling half of the kitchen to make it the right size for a child, thus beginning Angela’s love for hosting, cooking, and all things culinary. Angela’s mother got married again and they moved to Greenville, South Carolina. Angela’s mother encouraged her to express herself through writing and performing. Angela became a mime at the age of eight at the local mall. Angela loved writing and went on to win many writing awards at the various schools she attended.

Angela and her mother moved to San Diego, California after her mother left her fourth husband. The duo’s trip across the country turned into Angela’s first novel and first film – Tumbleweeds.

Angela Shelton Angela started modeling at the age of fourteen after her mother got her astrology chart done in California and it revealed that modeling would be lucrative. Angela’s mother got married for the fifth time and they all moved from Southern California to Los Angeles where Angela got her first modeling agent, Nina Blanchard. Her first modeling job was with Seventeen Magazine. Angela moved from Los Angeles to New York City at the age of seventeen and began a very successful modeling career, working consistently with Bill Blass as well as other major designers and department store catalogs. Angela moved to Paris when she was nineteen and began writing the book about her life with her mother that would later turn into the film called Tumbleweeds.

Angela began acting professionally when she came back from Europe and booked the lead role in Gavin O’Connor’s first film, Comfortably Numb, when she was 21. She let Gavin read her book and he insisted that they make a movie about it.

Tumbleweeds After they finished working on Comfortably Numb, she and Gavin began writing the screenplay based on her life. Tumbleweeds won the 1999 Sundance filmmaker’s award and got the lead actress, Janet McTeer, a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award nomination.

Angela began writing screenplays in Hollywood and received outstanding reviews for her adaptation of Kaye Gibbon’s novel, Charms for the Easy Life. It became a Showtime movie starring Gena Rowlands and Mimi Rogers. Angela then wrote two TV pilots, several more screenplays and was hired to adapt three other novels.

Searching for Angela Shelton In 2001, the Writer’s Strike became a threat. In order to prepare herself for a pending Writer’s Strike, Angela began a documentary called Searching for Angela Shelton. Her plan was to survey women in America and see how they were doing. Her broad questions were, “Who are you, where have you been, and where are you going?” As she began interviewing other Angela Sheltons nationwide, she was shocked when 70% of them shared intimate stories about being victims of rape, childhood sexual assault and/or domestic violence. When the filmmaker Angela Shelton met an Angela Shelton who was tracking sexual predators and lived in the same town as the filmmaker Angela Shelton’s own pedophile father, the journey became very personal.

Angela Shelton was discovered by people all over the world as she began editing her movie and sharing bits of it online and at speaking engagements. People started wearing shirts and posting stickers to spread the message word-of-mouth and on the internet. Angela had a mailing list, a forum, a website and a following before she was even finished making with her film. The producers of the Oprah Winfrey Show discovered Angela through comedian Jamie Kennedy’s connection as executive producer and Angela was invited on the show. After that 48 Hours Investigates did an hour special about Angela finishing her documentary.

Angela became a superhero for survivors when she finished her film and began showing it worldwide. Angela is so open and honest about her past, her pathway to recovery and the ups and downs of becoming a whole person that people are drawn to her. Angela became an expert in trauma and recovery while traveling with her film and speaking to over 30,000 survivors of abuse and violence. Angela became a sought-after speaker and uses her humor and honesty to inspire and empower everyone to end violence and lead joyful lives. She started The Survivor Manual to share healing techniques and out-of-the-box ways to end pain and suffering and live a joyous life.

Angela Shelton became a superhero for kids when she booked the role of Safe Side Superchick in The Safe Side series created by Baby Einstein creator, Julie Clark, and America’s Most Wanted creator, John Walsh.

Angela is now writing and directing a new film, working on a TV series, outlining a new book and workshopping a theater piece. She does a live show with updates about life and answers QandA on Sunday afternoons at noon Pacific time from her house or wherever she is at that moment.

Find out more about what Angela is up to by signing up for her mailing lists. All updates are from Angela Shelton personally.

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About Joann Shelton

Mom in NC Joann Shelton is a coach, a friend, an explorer, and a late bloomer. She tweets @FourLetterWords

She enjoys rearranging furniture, Feng Shui, costuming and movies. She has been asked many times if she was an artist only to reply, ‘my life is art’. She was born in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee and has a special relationship with birds. She is an avid journalist, has published a couple of articles and enjoys meandering in search of wildflowers. She has kept a dream journal for 20 years, contemplates daily and sees the joys of life in the smallest event. She enjoys the writings of Rumi and plans to write her own life story, which is depicted in her daughter’s first movie Tumbleweeds.

Joann has lived in NC, FL, MO, San Diego, LA, Seattle, NH. She has traveled the US more than the average person since she loves road trips. She has dreamed of swimming, but still to learn; has a passport, but still to travel.

She is an entrepreneur at heart and has owned her own business a couple of times. She has worked most recently in new home sales where she helped clients design their home, price the home, and choose interior and exterior material selections. She has been the top sales person for three years. Before that she managed 100 people at a world-class spa at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina where she was promoted three times. She started at Raleigh Bicycle in Seattle, Washington where she was also promoted several times and became a Buyer.

Now she is a Speaking Manager for her daughter, Angela Shelton. Never before has she been in a position where the product is so close to her belief system. She looks forward to helping others experience Love and Joy in their lives by bringing Angela Shelton to their community.

Joann books Angela for comedy and motivations events.

To book Angela Shelton for an event, contact Joann Shelton at joann@angelashelton.com or events@angelashelton.com

Q and A with Angela Shelton

    • When did you begin this project?In 2001 I began Searching for Angela Shelton by randomly calling 76 Angela Sheltons that I found on the Internet. Forty ended up responding to me.
    • What inspired you to go Searching for other Angela Sheltons?
      As a screenwriter in Hollywood I wanted something to do during the Writer’s Strike of 2001. The strike never ended up happening but before I found out it was called off I’d already begun speaking with Angelas across the country. I noticed a common thread of rape, incest and domestic violence stories among the Angelas and I decided to make the movie, strike or no strike. I also had many dreams about this film before I made it and throughout the process that kept me dedicated.



    • An interview with the filmmaker Angela Shelton:

    • How long did it take to make the movie?
      It took 57 days to shoot Searching for Angela Shelton and three years to edit it. During the editing process the project went through three editors. It’s remarkable how very different our visions of the project were. In the end, I started from scratch and edited the film myself, because that’s all I could afford. But like most of the Angela Sheltons say in the movie, everything happens for a reason. The real catharsis for me came during that editing process. I literally had to piece myself back together after listening to and dealing with so many stories of rape, abuse and incest, my own included.
    • How did you manage to release the film?
      The first limited edition DVD became available on the searchingforangelashelton.com website in response to the huge number of requests from rape crisis centers, shelters and survivors all over the world. The film has not had an official release or followed any “Hollywood” rules. Instead, via word of mouth, it has inspired a movement of healing and that movement keeps going forward day by day. After being told that “documentaries don’t make money” and that I “should put this little movie aside and go write a studio movie,” I made a commitment to myself and my investors that I would make sure this movie thrived. After appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show I received a few offers to buy the movie outright, taking all of the DVD rights as well as control of the movie and the movement away from me. I thought that resembled handing myself over to a perpetrator and decided to keep the movie independent. I have since been able to start paying my investors back, which has surprised many of them!
    • How much did it cost?
      It cost about $300,000 to make Searching for Angela Shelton. One of the main reasons was because I believe that artists and crews should be paid and well fed. I received many discounts while producing the film but insisted on paying everyone something. Where did you get the money from?Searching for Angela Shelton was never fully funded and still raises money today through DVD sales to keep the website going. The film was kept afloat during the process of getting it out into the world by friends and supporters who believe in the power of its message. Some invested cash, some bought t-shirts and a lot simply gave money. I also threw a party to raise funds in the beginning. The party’s theme was ‘Help support Angela travel across the United States to meet her namesakes’. Everyone who attended the party and donated money is listed in the credits of the limited edition DVD. Mark Ordesky from New Line Cinema sent the first check and made it possible for me to rent the motor home and start the journey. While on the road I almost ran out of money completely and the project was then saved by Heisman Trophy winner, Marcus Allen, and a longtime friend of mine, Chantal Moore.

      “I invested in this film because I wanted to help break down the wall of silence that imprisons far too many women and children suffering in the hands of sexual abuse; the bitter silence that protects perpetrators and their epidemic of abuse in this country and around the world. It is time to shed light where so much darkness has had far too much power for far too long.”
      ~ Chantal Moore
      When I came home to start the editing process more money was needed and my longtime friend, comedian Jamie Kennedy, came to the rescue. My best friend, Tudor Boloni, and his entire family provided desperately needed funds. When I started being harassed by perpetrators and had to deal with legal threats, more of my friends invested money to keep the movie protected. Karen Catchpole, Eric Mohl, George Penny, Carol and Anne Micheluz, Eric Gold and Scott Salter all believed in and supported Searching for Angela Shelton. Survivors around the world continude to donate money, purchase the DVD, and even sent me food while I was creating the limited edition DVD and VHS. Our goal was to get national attention for the movie and the cause. Jamie Kennedy was the one who told the producers of Oprah about my mission and movie. As cash began to dwindle with post-production costs, I personally liquidated all my savings and my IRA. I then sold all of my stocks. I was just about to sell my house when I became Safe Side Superchick and was able to pay my mortgage for a few more months. Shortly after, 48 Hours ran a special about me making the movie and it was seen by Rosie O’Donnell. Rosie contacted me and sent me the money to keep my house while I got the DVD out into the world. Today non-profit organizations buy the movie in bulk. Survivors and supporters of healing, from all over the world, also purchase copies of the DVD, which brings in the funds for the movie to move forward daily and do things like create the soundtrack that is requested so often.

    • Have the Angela Sheltons ever met each other?
      Yes! CBS’s 48 Hours Investigates flew most of the Angelas to Los Angeles in 2004. They got to see the rough cut of the movie and finally meet each other. Many of them still stay in contact today.
    • Do you stay in touch with the other ‘Angela’s?
      I stay in touch with the other Angelas as much as I can. I want them to be treated like princesses and queens so I’m always looking for more press opportunities where the Angelas can be flown in, put up somewhere luxurious and well fed. I never want an Angela to have to pay for anything. I also send any new Angela Sheltons who come forward a free DVD. Angela Shelton-Virginia and I probably talk to most. We have both been involved in workshops on incest and domestic violence.
    • Do you still talk to the Anonymous Angela?
      Yes. Anonymous began drinking again when her perpetrator father died. She called me from the hospital. After another battle with her addiction to alcohol, Anonymous made another commitment to sobriety. The last time I heard from the anonymous Angela, she was sober and happy but it goes up and down.
    • Will you be making other movies on the topic?
      After being exposed to so many stories and hearing about the epidemic of abuse for so long, there is no way that I can ever turn my back on all of the survivors who have contacted me and who I have personally met. My goal is to create projects that inspire and empower all survivors of abuse to heal and lead joyful lives. There are currently a few projects in the works.
    • What enabled you to be so honest in the movie?
      I was pushed by a power greater than myself to go Searching… It was the Angelas themselves who inspired me to go and confront my own past as well as my father. And it was the survivors around the world who contacted me and inspired me to keep moving forward after I returned home with the footage. I was forced to face my past while making the movie. In order to push it forward, I also had to heal myself. My commitment is to be of service to the world in gratitude for the survivors who contacted me helped and inspired me with my own recovery. So the people made an honest woman out of me, you could say.
    • How come your father was never put in jail? Are you able to charge him this many years later or will he continue to be a free man?
      In 1979 my step-siblings and I were removed from my father’s home and placed into foster care. The case that followed ordered that my father receive treatment and never have contact with any of the children again. He was not charged with a crime or given any jail time. He later married another woman with children. There isn’t a statute of limitations in North Carolina if there was digital insertion, which there was. After I appeared on Oprah and 48 Hours, the district attorney in the county where my siblings and I were molested reopened the case. Months later, I went to speak at the hospital in that county and was approached by many people in the community who told me that the judge was a perpetrator and kept all child abuse cases sealed. After hearing from so many other survivors in similar situations, I wasn’t surprised. Making this movie was in no way a way to have vengeance on my father but it amazes me how well this secret is covered up through the layers of the system. But I see changes happening.
    • Why is your father’s face blurred in the movie?
      After editing the movie, I sent my father a copy of the movie with a letter saying that I had finally forgiven him. He and his wife answered by sending me a cease and desist order from their attorney, ordering me to stop showing the movie. The letter claimed that “Mr. S. has never done those things.” In order to get an insurance policy for the film to air on television, I had to hide my father’s face even though he had signed a release. His face was also blurred in the clips on the Oprah Winfrey show. CBS’s 48 Hours Investigates did not fuzz the clips they aired. After reading the court papers and the release my father signed, they were not worried about the cease and desist order.
    • Does the movie lose some impact by having the perpetrator hidden?
      I was upset in the beginning when I had to blur-out my father’s face, thinking that I was still protecting him and therefore letting him off the hook. Since then I’ve received hundreds of emails from survivors all over the world thanking me for hiding his face. In doing so, they said they were able to project their perpetrator onto him. I never looked at it that way before but I like that outlook on it now. It fits the film. Because the story is not about my father just like it’s not about me. We represent a much bigger picture. This is an epidemic.
    • Haven’t I seen this movie on TV?
      Clips of the movie appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on CBS’s 48 Hours Investigates and a special one-hour version with never-before-seen footage aired on Lifetime on April 22, 2006.
    • How many versions of the movie are there?
      The original DVD and VHS that we started selling on the website are one-of-a-kind limited edition versions. There were only 10,000 made to show those that own this copy that they were there in the beginning. And now I have no plans of stopping my work with and for survivors. I’ve also created another DVD with more never-before-seen footage. This one is similar but different from the limited edition DVD. I prefer the new one. The graphics are better and I was able to explain a few more things in the movie as well. It also includes an optional director’s commentary throughout the film, which is really funny.
    • Are you and your brother, Steve, still close?
      Yes! After Steve agreed to appear in the film we did some major healing. We remain very close today and even went on vacation together. Steve is awesome.
    • How do you cope with relationships after what you’ve been through?
      After I went “Searching…” and heard from thousands of survivors from all over the world, I made a commitment to heal myself and then help others do the same. I have done a lot of work and been able to find balance in my life. Today I have healthy relationships, a healthy home life and relative peace of mind. I breathe better now too.
    • Did you find that the movie brought you the closure you were hoping for?
      I knew that the experience would be cathartic for me when I began because I made the decision to tell my own story along with the other Angelas’ stories at some point. What I was not prepared for was confronting my abusive father on film. After I spoke with my father for the first time in 12 years about the abuse and got nothing from him but denial, I was faced with another catharsis. After not getting the response or the father I had always wanted, I realized that it was my own responsibility to heal myself because no one was going to do it for me. It was the Angelas who inspired me to keep moving forward in my healing and I did find closure on my pain and continue to peel back the layers of becoming a whole healthy human being.
    • What are you doing now?
      Due to the overwhelming response, I was gifted with the Angela Shelton Foundation with the mission of inspiring and empowering all survivors of abuse to heal and lead joyful lives. I’ve become recognized as one of the more outspoken voices for survivors of trauma and go around the world speaking to various audiences. I’m currently working with a remarkable team of women to create an online network for survivors. I write a blog for survivors and I travel the world.I’m also working on a project very dear to me called “The Survivor Manual” where I find various forms of healing and share them with survivors. I not only get to inspire people to heal, I am also the superhero in The Safe Side video series. I am Safe Side Superchick, who teaches children how to be safe. The videos were developed by Baby Einstein creator, Julie Clark, and America’s Most Wanted creator, John Walsh. I’m writing and directing a new movie, a TV series, a theater project and a new book.
    • What books do you recommend on the subject of abuse and/or healing?
      There is a collection of suggested books in the Survivor Manual Bookstore

    • For the Press

    Angela’s Press Kit: presskit.pdf

    Angela’s Bio:: AngelaShelton_BIO.pdf

    Media Questions

    To submit your own questions please email pr@angelashelton.com

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