Shawn Hoffman's book SAMSON: A Savior Will Rise, has won top awards at 8 National and International Book Festival competitions including: THE NEW YORK BOOK FESTIVAL, THE LOS ANGELES BOOK FESTIVAL, THE GREAT NORTHWEST BOOK FESTIVAL, HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL, THE BEVERLY HILLS BOOK AWARD, THE PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL (AN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IN PARIS, FRANCE), and THE SAN FRANCISCO BOOK FESTIVAL, and THE LONDON BOOK FESTIVAL.After attending Stanford University on a full Academic Scholarship, Shawn went back to New York, working and training with Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino's acting coach, Penny Allen, at the Charles Laughton/Penny Allen Studios in New York. Shawn got one of the lead roles in "The Survivor", a Broadway show based on the book "The Survivor" by Jack Eisner detailing how Eisner lost, literally, every single person he knew and loved during the Holocaust of World War 2. When "The Survivor" was brought to L.A. from New York, Shawn moved from the Big Apple to the City of Angels where he auditioned for and became a member of Ed Harris and Holly Hunter's Theater Group, THE L.A. MET. Angelina Jolie was among the other members.Shawn has had several writing deals as well as films in development including with Tom Cruise's company (C/W Productions - Mission Impossible 1 & 2, Minority Report, etc.), John Woo & Terence Chang's company (Lion Rock Productions - Face/Off, Broken Arrow, Windtalkers, etc.), 50 Cannon Productions (Producers of Academy Award winning Traffic, Four Weddings and a Funeral, & Donnie Brasco, etc.), and Producer Gerry Molen (Academy Award Winning Producer of Schindler's List, Rain Man, Jurassic Park 1 & 2, Minority Report, etc.).Shawn went on to be a Producer on Mark Burnett/Donald Trumps's hit NBC television show "The Apprentice" with over 40 Million viewers in the United States alone, and his film Hometown Legend (Warner Bros.) won several film festivals including the Vision Film Festival.Shawn has done over 20 films and television shows as an actor, including starring in movies for Lion's Gate Studios {"Ed Gein"}, Disney {"Adventures in Dinosaur City"}, Warner Bros. {"Scarecrow"}, Sundance Film Channel {"Cat's Cradle"}, F/X channel {"Assault on Dome 4"}, and in TV shows at NBC {Emmy Award Winning show "Providence" and Golden Golden Globe nominated "Suddenly Susan" with Brook Shields}, ABC {"Charlie Grace" with Mark Harmon}, CBS (Film -- Double Jeopardy with Rachel Ward, Sela Ward, & Bruce Boxleitner), FOX {"Sherman Oaks" - TV Series}, and MTV.Shawn has gone on to write 10 screenplays that have sold in the last 10 years and his first novel, Samson: a Savior Will Rise, from Harper-Collins/Thomas-Nelson is a World War 2 Holocaust story that has received tremendous reviews and has won many national and international awards for Best Novel. Show less «