Kristen Lauth Shaeffer lives and creates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her short films have screened at the New Orleans Film Festival, Dance on Camera Film Festival (co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association), Cucalorus Film Festival, Paris International Festival of Animated Film, Athens International Film + Video Festival, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles and New York, and other national and international festivals. She has received grants from The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and Pittsburgh 250 Community Connections for her work as co-creator and executive producer of Greetings from Pittsburgh: Neighborhood Narratives and from The Heinz Endowments for her work as co-creator of the immersive 360 video documentary, By the Waters of Babylon.

She received her B.A. in Communication Arts and Theater from Allegheny College in 2003, and her M.F.A. in Film and Digital Technology from Chatham University in 2007. In between, she worked in live television closed captioning, and as a producer in Washington, D.C. Kristen is now the Chair of the Art, Design, & Communication Department and an Associate Professor of Media Arts at Chatham University.