Karen Kopins Shaw is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress and former model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

. Her acting career is mostly under her maiden name.

Early life

Kopins was Miss Connecticut

Miss Connecticut

The Miss Connecticut competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Connecticut in the Miss America pageant. Connecticut has won the Miss America crown once .- Winners :- External links :***...

 1977, having entered the pageant as Miss Ridgefield

Ridgefield, Connecticut

Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, the 300-year-old community had a population of 24,638 at the 2010 census. The town center, which was formerly a borough, is defined by the U.S...

. Kopins graduated from Marymount College

Marymount College, Tarrytown

Marymount College of Fordham University was a women's college in the United States, eventually to become part of Fordham University. The Marymount campus was located in Tarrytown, New York. Enrollment peaked at 1,112 in 1978, but by 2004 it enrolled 844 students...

 before moving to California to pursue an acting career.

Acting career

She has played minor and guest roles in various television shows, such as The A-Team

The A-Team

The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...

and Riptide

Riptide (TV series)

Riptide is a TV detective series that ran on NBC from 1983 to 1986, starring Perry King, Joe Penny, and Thom Bray. Riptide was created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell, and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The main theme was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter...

. During a season of Dallas

Dallas (TV series)

Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...

, she played Kay Lloyd, a love interest of Bobby Ewing. She has also appeared in films, including Once Bitten. She was cast as one of Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...

 in the unaired spinoff Angels '88.

Personal life

In 1990 she married her high school sweetheart Mark Shaw, with whom she has four children. The family resides in Redding

Redding, Connecticut

Mark Twain, a resident of the town in his old age, contributed the first books for a public library which was eventually named after him.-Government:...

, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

.

Selected filmography

• Riptide
  Riptide (TV series)
  Riptide is a TV detective series that ran on NBC from 1983 to 1986, starring Perry King, Joe Penny, and Thom Bray. Riptide was created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell, and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The main theme was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter...
  
  (1983/4) as Kimba Hall (Pilot)
• Knight Rider (1984) as Cindy
• Once Bitten (1985) as Robin Pierce
• Fast Forward
  Fast Forward (1985 film)
  Fast Forward is a 1985 dance film directed by Sidney Poitier. In the film, a dance troup from Ohio comes to New York to compete in a national talent competition.-Plot synopsis:...
  
  (1985) as Susan Granger
• Creator
  Creator (film)
  Creator is a 1985 film directed by Ivan Passer, starring Peter O'Toole, Vincent Spano, Mariel Hemingway, and Virginia Madsen. It is based on a book of the same title by Jeremy Leven.-Plot:...
  
  (1985) as Lucy
• The A-Team
  The A-Team
  The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
  
  (1986) as Dominique Cornay (episode 'The Spy Who Mugged Me')
• Jake Speed
  Jake Speed
  Jake Speed is a 1986 action/comedy film directed by Andrew Lane, produced by Lane, Wayne Crawford, and William Fay, written by Lane and Crawford, and starring Crawford in the title role.-Plot:...
  
  (1986) as Margaret Winston
• Angels '88 (1988) as Trisha Lawrence
• The Tracker (1988) as Sarah Bolton
• Dallas
  Dallas (TV series)
  Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
  
  (1988–1989, recurring) as Kay Lloyd
• Troop Beverly Hills
  Troop Beverly Hills
  Troop Beverly Hills is a 1989 American comedy film. Produced by Weintraub Entertainment Group and directed by Jeff Kanew, it starred Shelley Long, Craig T...
  
  (1989) as Lisa
• Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again
  Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again
  Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again was a live-action television movie based on comic book characters published by Archie Comics...
  
  (1990) as Veronica Lodge
  Veronica Lodge
  Veronica Lodge is a fictional character in the Archie Comics books series.-Fictional history and character:She is called both by her name Veronica and her nickname Ronnie...
  
  
• Lady in Waiting (1994) as Fiona Richards

External links

• Official website
• Fan page for Shaw at MySpace
  MySpace
  Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....