Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern is an American performer, choreographer and director who believes deeply in collaboration and emphasizes humanity in his work. He engages as a freelancer in diverse projects for both stage and film around the world. Ahern has contributed to more than thirty major productions across a wide range of platforms including three Grammy Award nominated dance films and multiple Academy Award winning major motion pictures. His choreographic work for Michael Gallen’s opera Elsewhere was lauded by major print media as, “fluidly physical” and “beautifully choreographed”, and the show was included on the Irish Times Best of 2021 list. As a performer, he has appeared in over one thousand live shows worldwide, and his independent films have been featured and awarded in festivals across the Americas, Europe and Asia, including two premieres at Lincoln Center. Ahern’s work as choreographic associate to Damien Jalet includes Chiroptera, which premiered on the Paris Opera Garnier façade with 164 dancers and is also featured in Jacques Audiard’s newest film Emilia Pérez which premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2024, receiving the Prix du Jury and continued on to win four Golden Globes and two Oscars in 2025. In the next year, he’ll be directing new short films, choreographing live dance commissions in Europe as well as the USA, and co-directing the new Fedora Prize winning Opera, The Curing Line.