Shimmy Isaacs was born and raised in Worcester. At 17, after matriculating, she left the Boland town to pursue a career in acting. She received a scholarship to study at the AFDA Film School where she won several awards in various student productions that include Best Actress and Best Newcomer (Stone Award) for Liefdes Verhaal and Best Supporting Actress for King Leer.
Shimmy has obtained an Honours Degree from AFDA in 2005 and later studied acting at the Black Nexxus School of Performance in New York for three months. In 2006 she returned to South Africa and took up the position of lecturer in the Acting Department at AFDA Cape Town.
Since 2008 she has freelancing as a writer, actress, comedian and producer. Widely regarded as one of Cape Town’s funniest female comedians she has performed alongside artists such as Marc Lottering, Collin Moss, Tumi Morake, Allan Committee, David Newton, Martin Evans, Rob van Vuuren and Kurt Schoonraad.
She also won the Best of Ikwezi Award in 2009 for her production Dens Wit Me a Cape Flats Musical Comedy. And again in 2010 she won Best Ikwezi for her biographical one woman physical comedy show “Allie Pad Funny Worcester”, both productions produced, written and performed by Shimmy Isaacs. Both productions went on to be performed at the Suid-Ooste Fees 2010 and 2011 at the Artscape Theatre. Dens Wit Me was also invited to be performed again at the Artscape in August 2009 for the woman’s month celebration.
In 2010 she wrote and toured through South Africa with a new 15 min one woman show “Howzit my Bra”which she created for the Journey of Hope Organisation (Breast Cancer Survivors) Sponsored by Revlon. In 2011 she extended “Howzit my Bra” to a 45 min stage play that performed at the 2011 ABSA KKNK festival in Oudtshoorn, and has earned her a Kaanna nomination for her one woman physical performance.
In 2009 she won The Last Man Standing Comedy competition that earned her the chance to perform at the Rocking the Daisies rock festival in Darling that takes place in October 2010
In 2010 Shimmy joined three strong female artists and journalist; Marianne Thamm, Anthea Thompson and Anne Hirsch creating a successful comedy production Cracks in the City (Cracks Only). Cracks Only has a regular once a month performance at the Baxter Theatre 2011. Shimmy regularly performs at Jou Ma Se Comedy Club at the River Club in Observatory. She was also appointed as one of the performers at the FIFA Fan Fest parks in Cape Town during the 2010 World Cup.
In January 2011 she performed and was nominated in the stand-up comedy newcomer category at The South African Comics Choice Awards, Montecasino, Johannesburg. In June 2011 she will perform at the 7th Annual Vodacom Funny Festival, Baxter Theatre.
