T. Sean Shannon is from Houston, Texas. His brother Charles Shannon (d.2003) was also a stand-up comedian, and writer. As a writer for Saturday Night Live he won an Emmy Award in 2002 (nominated in 2001 & 2003) and a WGA Award in 2001 (nominated in 2001, 2002 and 2003). He is the writer and creator of the sketch Bear City, which deals with a city completely inhabited by anthropomorphic bears due to a meteor crash. In July 2008, Shannon revealed that he had written a Bear City movie. He directed and co-wrote the feature film Harold that was released in July 2008.