Talk:Sofia Shinas

Multiple SPAs asserting same birthdates
I have noted a large number of single purpose accounts being used here to attempt to assert the birthdate of this individual. If a reliable source for the birthdate, besides "I went to school with her" or "I was her teacher" can't be produced, then the birthdate will stand as 1968. Further, a WP:Sock puppet report will be initiated to discover the locations of all the SPAs, with the potential that all could be blocked if they are from the same location. The SPA accounts include User:Bubbalovescats, User:Julia Stiles (which is also a violation of WP:Usernames), User:Apotiyama, User:209.244.42.70, User:Stesha08, User:Tryfoncastro, User:Sethgray, User:TryfonC, User:Anne Marie Lalonde, who says she found the correct birthdate in a London newspaper (what London isn't clear), and User:Annemarie.lalande. Please be forthcoming with information from a reliable source supporting this birthdate and that these accounts do not belong to the same person. Thank you. Wildhartlivie (talk) 09:46, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm guessing London was a reference to London, Ontario. London, Ontario was also listed as her birth place which turned out to be wrong as well. Either way, I concur with Wildhartlivie. At first, I attempted to assume good faith, but the recent findings are disturbing and leave little room for good faith assumptions. I am now watchlisting this article and if any changes are made without a reliable and verifiable source to back them up at the time the changes are made (again, that does not include claims of knowing the subject, etc) they will be reverted and reported on sight. These actions have dated back to March 2007 and since Shinas' article isn't high profile, this pattern of long term vandalism has gone unnoticed. If the games continue, I won't hesitate to create a sockpuppet report on the accounts listed above along with any "new" users who decide to insert incorrect information. Pinkadelica (talk) 10:56, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Based on OTRS, I can say that the mention in the London newspaper was referring to a different Sofia Shinas, and that the IMDB is wrong on this. DS (talk) 12:37, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Birth Date - This may solve it...
Windsor Star lists biography information on the actress in an article they wrote about her, and includes an interview with her. In the article (from May 28, 1994) she was listed as 26 (born in 1968). The article also report that "Toronto-Born Shinas grew up in Windsor, where the rest of her family - parents James and Lela, and brothers Gus, Chris and John - still live. She attended Roseland elementary schoool and spent part of her high school years at Kennedy Secondary School before finishing up at Sandwich Secondary School." If you do a search on her name, on classmates her name comes up that she attended the Sandwich Secondary School from 1983-1987. The 1968 birthdate is correct. It is highly unlikely that she graduated high school at 13, or that she managed to work in Canadian theatre, and the music industry for a number of years before making The Crow at age 19. All the biographies online list her birth year as 1968, and I seriously doubt that all of them are confusing her with a different person of the same name.

Karama08 (talk) 14:26, 22 November 2008 (UTC)karama08
 * Is there an online source for this? Wildhartlivie (talk) 02:14, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

You can google search the information about her entry for her school year. I have found a L.A TIMES article from 1992, where she is listed as being 25. I have pasted it below, and you can find it on the l.A Times archive website.

"Debut Album Presents Sofia Shinas Reconnected With Her Funky Soul - Nov 1, 1992

The sound of soul and funk had come floating across the border to Windsor, Ontario, just 30 minutes away from Detroit's pop radio stations. That was back when Sofia Shinas was listening to someone calling himself the Electrifying Mojo spin records by James Brown and Rufus and Aretha Franklin and others, helping the young Canadian escape the endless hours of her brothers' Jimi Hendrix records and the contemporary Greek music of her parents. That early heavy soul experience remains Shinas' musical core, and it is what ultimately led to the smooth dance/pop/funk of her just-released "Sofia Shinas" album on Warner Bros. Records. Now transplanted to West Los Angeles, the singer and lyricist arrived at this sound after some years of experimenting in other genres, from high school rock bands to work in hometown musical theater. "I always knew that this was what I wanted to do," said Shinas, sitting with an iced tea at a Beverly Boulevard coffeehouse last week. "Even when I was in a band, I wanted to be the front woman, and sing my own lyrics, instead of having someone else sing my words. I'm just a medium through which I express my music." Shinas, 25, was pausing during a long day of preparations for an upcoming promotional concert tour to the East Coast. She had just arrived from a choreography rehearsal, re-enacting her brief days on a Detroit television dance program. Her debut album was recorded in Los Angeles and New York, with her songwriting partner Mitch Kaplan co-producing with Daniel Abraham. A veteran pianist and musical director for such acts as the Pointer Sisters, Sister Sledge, Chaka Khan, comedian Sandra Bernhard and others, Kaplan had met Shinas at a New York production of Bernhard's stage show and persuaded the young singer to move to Los Angeles about two years ago. "And I've been working with him all along," she said. As before, several of the new record's tracks were fashioned out of Shinas' lyrics and Kaplan's musical ideas. Against a largely upbeat backdrop of rhythmic pop, Shinas sings lyrics that Rolling Stone has said describe a place "where everything does turn out fine." But the singer herself insisted that her intentions are to go beyond the universal themes of romance to world events and personal freedoms. Her "Soldier Boy" was written in response to the Persian Gulf War. "I'd gotten a phone call from my brother during that crisis, and he'd said, `Look what's going on. Can you believe it's happening, and how sad and painful it is that these people have to go away?' "And I imagined this scenario about my brother or someone very close to me leaving. I wanted to write it from a family's perspective, rather than a lover's perspective, and take myself to that place. It's quite tragic." She had suffered a different kind of family crisis when her parents strongly objected to her undertaking a musical career. "My parents were very strict and disciplinarian," she said. "They wanted me to pursue academics. Much to their dismay, I didn't." Shinas left the University of Toronto before finishing her first semester, to pursue making music in New York City. "They were completely frantic, very unhappy," she said. "My father didn't speak to me for six months. He was so unhappy that I was no longer living my life the way he wanted me to. It was either my sanity or him. I tried to find a middle ground, but I had to be true to myself, and not betray myself." It's a goal that may be best reflected in her song "Under the Tulip Tree," in which Shinas sings "about a secret place I had as a child that I would go to and just fantasize about being grown up and being in control, because I certainly wasn't in control of my life." The singer said she has long since reconciled with her father, and she has fond memories of the contemporary Greek music she grew up listening to at home. "It's music that was soulful but in a different language," she said. "The most beautiful music that I've ever heard happens to be Greek music, because they sing with such pain. It's so poignant. They really sing from the gut."

Karama08 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 07:06, 23 November 2008 (UTC).


 * This is the link to the abstract of the above article. According to the article, Shinas went to college for a little less than a semester, worked on a Detroit TV show, was in New York working, before moving to Los Angeles about two years ago (from the date of the article in 1992). Since all the newly registered group of users who had a myriad of reasons "why they know" her birthdate was in 1974 ("I went to school with her", "I was her teacher, I should know", "I go to USC with her", etc. etc.) and since a birth certificate was submitted to OTRS by someone who purported to get it from Shinas' brother, who wouldn't mind if he or she sent it in (which is absolutely an invasion of privacy unless the submitter was actually Sofia Shinas), we are supposed to accept that she was born in 1974 and that would have made her at the most, 18 in 1992 when the interview was published. So let's see, two years in LA, plus a semester in college plus time in Detroit and New York. Even if the college and Detroit and New York time only totalled a year, then she started college when she was 15? And left and went on to work when? Late 15 years old, early 16 years old? Moved to Los Angeles at age 16?? I would suggest that OTRS was duped by a phony birth certificate and the 1968 birthdate is much more likely and 1974 would be next to impossible. I think this warrants someone with the capability to look into the birth certificate authenticity. If Sofia Shinas had been some sort of prodigy, it would seem likely that the interview would mention that. Oh wait. The interview says she's 25 in 1992. Oops. Wouldn't one think had the Los Angeles Times overstated the age of an 18 year old prodigy by seven years, it would have been corrected? Wildhartlivie (talk) 08:21, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * What is OTRS? It does seem strange highly unlikely and rather suspicious, especially considering if you put together a timeline and its more less impossible that she is the age people (or her) claim is correct. An author is doing a book on Brandon Lee and got access to cast and crew insurance documents, where all cast's dob and emergency details are listed and the author says that Shinas was listed as being 25 at the time of production (Feb-March 1993) and that would be a legal document. Some details were posted on the internet movie database forum on her. I think its pretty assured that her original 1968 birth date on wikipedia is correct and should be reverted. Karama08 (talk) 09:57, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I'll just refer you to the page and you can read what OTRS is about: OTRS. They take care of personal and confidential matters, for instance, if someone were to post your name, address, phone number, email address, etc. or to receive confidential submissions such as support for contributions that can't be made public. Wildhartlivie (talk) 10:39, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the info Karama08. I did numerous searches and never found what you found so big time kudos for that. If you look at the history of the article, this DOB battle has been going on for some time. The IMDb postings about her DOB is what lead me to look further into the situation. I worked on the article before but since I didn't watch it, I had no idea how long this was actually going on. From my own memory of Shinas, I too thought the timeline was "off" which lead me to filing an AN/I report after all the date changing wouldn't stop. After the page was locked, someone popped up claiming they were friends with Shinas' brother (not Shinas herself, oddly) and had a copy of her birth certificate. They also said several people with the same name lived in the same area and that the 1968 DOB is actually Shinas' cousin who (you guessed it) has the same name. Even with birth certificate claim, the whole thing still sounds suspect to me. I'm not sure if the birth certificate was ever sent in or even how that whole thing works. If everything was verified, I'm sure the page would've been unlocked by now.  Pinkadelica Say it...  11:38, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * If there was a certificate sent in and if there is a cousin with the same name, it is possible that the cousin might be the one born in 1974 and for whatever reason maybe Shinas wants to be younger? At any rate all the reliable information does indicate that 1968 is her correct birth year. I noticed that at one point someone also changed it to 1973 and all claiming that they "went to school" with her, etc. I can understand why it was locked. Karama08 (talk) 12:02, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Let me suggest that folks browse the images of Shinas from her performance in The Crow. In my opinion these strongly suggest the 1968 birthdate is more likely than 1974.  She does not look 19 in The Crow.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.44.149 (talk) 08:04, 31 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Her FaceBook page gives her birthday as January 25. No year is given. Doing the math, if she was 25 in November 1992, her birth year should be January 25, 1967. This seems to dispute the January 17 birthday, and the 1968 birth year.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.229.132.171 (talk) 21:18, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Birth date removed
After discussion here and at I have decided that the safest thing to do is to simply remove the birth date. Please do not replace it without incontrovertible evidence. Thanks. dougweller (talk) 22:15, 20 December 2008 (UTC)


 * That's really too bad. The article will never appear on any yyyy in Canadian music.  See 1964 in Canadian music as an example.  Argolin (talk) 23:35, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Place of Birth?
There is no prose on her place of birth? I added two categories: changed people from to musicians from and actors from. Is she from Windsor? Was she born there? Argolin (talk) 23:49, 1 March 2012 (UTC)