Shelton was a co-screenwriter, with then-husband Gavin O'Connor, and executive producer for the 1999 film Tumbleweeds, based on her experiences with her serial-marrying mother, to whom she was returned after being in foster care.
On television, Shelton has appeared in episodes of Pacific Blue, Chicago Hope and Becker, and the TV movie The Big Time (2002).
Heart, Baby), was written, produced and directed by Shelton and stars Gbenga Akinnagbe, based on the true story of George "The Hammer" Martin, a prison boxer who was offered freedom to fight in the 1984 Olympics and refused to go.
[2] In The Eagle and the Albatross (2020), Shelton used her own experiences with her mentors in a comedy drama about an orphaned half-Korean girl, played by Amber Liu, who seeks help from a widowed optometrist, Dan Lauria, with the only thing both of them love - golf.
In April 2006, an edited version of the film aired on the cable television channel Lifetime, as part of their campaign to end violence against women.
In October 2013, she shared her story, "Use Your Sword," as part of the first [That's What She Said] show, held at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, Illinois.