Born and raised in Philadelphia, Mike O’Shea’s love of photography and film began at a very young age. Even as a young boy, he could often be found with a camera in hand. That interest led him to Temple University, where he majored in Radio/Television/Film and Broadcasting/Telecommunications/Mass Media.
Just three days after graduation in 1995, he met Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown at a Steadicam workshop after graduating Temple. Brown offered him a job building new specialty camera systems for the 1996 Olympic Centennial Games in Atlanta. O’Shea recruited fellow Temple alumnus Pat Hally to join the team. Thus began a year-long journey to build, test and demo four different specialty cameras for a dozen Olympic committees and athletic federations.
In the summer of 1996, O’Shea, Hally and Brown, along with a team of 50 hand-picked Steadicam operators, deployed 18 specialty camera systems at the Centennial Olympic Games, including 12 small GoCam tracking cameras, 4 SkyCams, an underwater tracking camera called MobyCam, and a DiveCam to document Olympic divers underwater. Following the Olympics, Mike continued to deploy these camera systems around the world for various sporting events.
In 1999, O’Shea was hired as a Steadicam operator on the feature film “Animal Factory,” which was shot on location in Philadelphia. Since then, he has been working in television and features, both as Steadicam operator and director of photography. His credits include “Bloodline” and “Jessica Jones” for Netflix, “OZ” on HBO and “The Americans” and “Damages” for the FX Network. His feature credits include “Brooklyn’s Finest,” “Cop Out,” “12 Rounds” and “Sex and the City: The Movie.”
He continues working with his best friend and Temple Alumni Pat Hally deploying Pat’s “FlyCam” system when time allows.
O’Shea is married to Temple alumna Babita Hariani, former reporter at WABC Radio in New York and WMAL Radio in Washington, D.C., who now writes and runs their film rental company supplying equipment to up and coming operators. They have two boys, Dylan and Aidan. When not on set, Mike enjoys spending time with his family and teaching Steadicam workshops.