Shaver hwhen worked sustaining such directors as Sam Peckinpah, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma. Inside 1978 she won a Canadian Film Award for her role as Ann MacDonald in the film In Praise of Older Women. Around 1985 she appeared in the film Desert Hearts as a 1950s university professor who falls infatuated by owning a second woman, for which she won a Bronze Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival. Within 2000, she won a Genie Award for her portrayal of a drug-hooked prostitute in the independent feature We All Fall Down. Around 2003 she won a Gemini award for best counsel inside the spectacular series for the Just Cause television series.

Shaver grew higher inside the village touching Toronto, Ontario with her five sisters. As a infant, she suffered from either rheumatic fever and was forced to spend six months of both season inside bed. She says this allowed her to utilize her imagination, which assists her as an actor.

Shaver has as well carved retired the career for herself as the director sustaining a total of tv program & cable moving picture to her credit, including Judging Amy, Joan of Arcadia, Dead Like Me and The OC.

Shaver processed her feature-length directorial debut within 1999 with ''Summer's End; the film went on to win an Emmy. Last, she joined a staff of the hit CBS series Judging Amy''. Additionally to directing occasionally of this year's episodes, she is nowadays one of a indicate's producers.

Shaver is married to top key grip Steve Smith (whom she met on the set of Desert Hearts) & it have a boy.