Shelby Acosta was born and raised in El Paso, Texas which borders Juarez, Mexico. She is a Latina actress living in NYC and is very proud of her culture (which includes family coming from the Chiricahua tribe). Growing up she would sing any opportunity she could, she then found a theatre company in El Paso and started doing shows as young as 9 years old. Although she is extremely proud of El Paso and the culture she was raised in, there weren’t many opportunities to expand her need for theatre so when she got to high school she auditioned and was accepted as a theatre major at Interlochen Arts Academy.

At the age of 15 she went off to Michigan to attend the academy, and learned all she could before auditioning for Musical Theatre BFA programs. She auditioned and was accepted to the BFA Musical Theatre program at Texas State University under the direction of Kaitlin Hopkins. Throughout her years at Texas State she worked with and learned from many professionals including Paul Gemignani, Mark Hollmann, Andrew Lippa and more. Her senior year she went on to compete at KCACTF where she won the Musical Theatre Initiative and went on to perform at the Kennedy Center, while taking masterclasses from Broadway professionals.

Once she graduated from Texas State, she moved to NYC for 2 months before booking a cruise ship contract where she traveled over the world singing and performing. She returned to NYC after two contracts, auditioned and booked various regional productions as well as 54 Below Cabarets and shows. In January 2020 she booked Emojiland The Musical as an understudy for 5 of the principal roles. Shelby continues to work and practice to better herself, she also has taken this time to fight for social and racial injustices in the industry and in the world.