Shaun Paul Piccinino

Shaun Paul Piccinino is a director, producer, writer, stunt choreographer and visual effects artist based in Los Angeles, CA. He is best known for A California Christmas (2020), Wheels of Fortune (2020), Lady Driver (2020), and Roped (2020).

Early life
Piccinino was born and raised in Chico, CA. His parents are Barry and Cindy Piccinino. Because his father was a theater professor and stage director at Butte College, Piccinino developed an interest in the performing and visual arts.

2002-2016: early work
At the start of his career, Piccinino contributed to dozens of projects in multiple ways: acting, stunt coordination, editing, visual effects, and directing. Early achievements include work on the Spike TV series, "Deadliest Warrior"- where Piccinino helped direct multiple episodes and also portrayed Scottish hero William Wallace-, and Visual Effects jobs with ACME Film Works and the Cartoon Network Series "Robot Chicken" with Seth Green. Piccinino also performed in several popular video games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (video game) and "Spider-Man: Web of Shadows" (video game).

In 2012, The Lackey- a feature film that he wrote, directed, and starred in- won multiple awards, including "Best Editing on a Feature" at the Action on Film International Film Festival and the "People's Choice Award" at the SoCal Film Festival. Over the next few years, he continued to be involved in various projects in multiple positions, including the "Super Power Beat Down" and "Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe" series for Bat in the Sun, and prominent shows like Max Steel (2016) and "Snowfall" (2017).

2017-present:
In 2017, Piccinino directed the feature film Sunset Glory, the epic World War 2 story of Jimmy Dolittle's heroic retaliation mission after the attack on Pearl Harbor, followed by American Fighter, a gritty action film set in the early 1980's starring Tommy Flanagan and Sean Patrick Flanery (set to be released in the US in May 2021.) This project partnered him with the production teams of Forrest Films and ESX Entertainment, with whom he has since worked to direct multiple successful films, including the 2020 Netflix features Lady Driver, about a 16-year-old young woman who becomes a Circle Track champion in a male-dominated sport, and Roped, about a cowboy and small-town girl. Then went on to direct the comedy, Wheels Of Fortune starring Matt Jones, Noureen DeWulf and Matty Cardarople which was also released on Netflix.

Piccinino was joined by many of the same production team again in the late summer of 2020- during the height of the COVID pandemic- to create the Netflix Original feature film A California Christmas. The film premiered December 14, 2020, and within days achieved #1 Netflix rankings in both the U.S. and world ratings, where it remained for over a week. The film finished as the #13 most popular feature film on Netflix for 2020 with only two weeks in release.

Future projects
Netflix has announced a sequel to "A California Christmas". Meanwhile, his 2018 film American Fighter, a sequel to American Wrestler: The Wizard, will premiere in May 2021 from Lionsgate and Grindstone, and Salvage Marines, a sci-fi mini-series, starring Casper Van Dien and Armand Assante, is now in post-production.

Interests
He is an AAU National Champion in martial arts, a 4th degree black belt Shaolin Kung Fu and 1st Degree black belt in Okinawan Karate.

He is also a trained musician, archer and motorcycle enthusiast. He owns a Royal Enfield Classic 500 and a Triumph Bonneville motorcycles.