Shelley Thompson is a Canadian actress best known for her character Barbara Lahey on the hit Canadian mockumentary program Trailer Park Boys

Trailer Park Boys

Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian comedy mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focuses on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The...

.

Born in Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Shelley trained at RADA

Rada

Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and worked for many years in the UK. She portrayed numerous leading roles in London's West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 and at the Royal National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

, as well as leading roles in many regional theatres. She was a regular leading player in BBC radio drama during her time in Britain, and recorded dozens of audio books - titles including work by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

 and Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...

. She was one of three leading players on a family series, Mike and Angelo

Mike and Angelo

Mike and Angelo is a sci-fi TV sitcom series that ran on CITV between 16 March 1989 and 7 March 2000. It centres on Angelo , an alien who came from another world during the first series; the portal from his world being that of a...

, for six years, and made guest starring appearances on Drop The Dead Donkey

Drop the Dead Donkey

- Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...

, EastEnders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

 and Chelworth. She also played the role of the stepmother in Jim Henson

Jim Henson

James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...

's 1986 fantasy epic Labyrinth

Labyrinth (film)

Labyrinth is a 1986 British/American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee, Terry Jones from Monty Python, and Elaine May .The film stars David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin...

. She has appeared in all seven seasons of Trailer Park Boys

Trailer Park Boys

Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian comedy mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focuses on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The...

, both specials, and the Feature Film.

Since returning to Canada, her work has included season at the Atlantic Theatre Festival (Ariel in the Tempest and Viola in Twelfth Night), work at the Neptune Theatre, The Prairie Theatre
Exchange, The Globe Theatre, Regina, and Festival Antigonish.

She writes an irregular column for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald

Halifax Chronicle-Herald

The Chronicle Herald is a broadsheet published in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The largest newspaper company in Nova Scotia, The Chronicle Herald is also the highest circulation newspaper in the Atlantic provinces and is currently the largest independently owned newspaper company in Canada...

as an arts columnist, and is a contributing author to an upcoming anthology of Christmas Short Stories by Maritime Writers, to be published Fall 2008 by Nimbus Press.

External links