Sheila O'Donnell

Sheila Maureen O'Donnell was born to Sean O'Donnell, a folk musician from Donegal, Ireland and Diane Smith, a primary school teacher with Swedish and Irish heritage. Her father first taught her to sing from the moment she spoke. Sheila attended Saint Mary's College of Notre Dame, Indiana and studied abroad in Rome, Italy during which she often performed live. After college, Sheila continued to perform both traditional Irish and popular music all over the Chicago area and in 1999 she released an album of Irish Songs entitled, "Come by the Hills". Sheila wrote her first original song, "Waking Up" in 1998 and performed it two weeks later at a songwriter's open mic event at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. As a result Gregory Crook and Allen Burnett of Tic Toc Entertainment offered to produce her and a little over a year and a half later on November 11th, 2000 at the Hothouse in Chicago, Sheila released her first CD of original songs entitled "Waking Up". In October 2001 she moved out to Los Angeles and continues to perform at venues including Genghis Cohen, The Viper Room, The Key Club, The Knitting Factory, The Mint, the House of Blues and the Derby. In November of 2003 she was a featured act at the VH-1 Save the Music Foundation party in Beverly Hills. She released her album "Clear", a collaboration with poet and musician Richard Fammerée on November 11th, 2007. Six of her songs are featured in the independent short film, "I Heard the Mermaids Singing" which won a Silver Award for Excellence for the soundtrack at the Park City Film Music Festival in January 2008. Sheila is (November 2009) currently working on material for her new album as well as upcoming TV and film projects.