Shannon Whirry trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in the 1980s, appearing onstage in Butterflies Are Free and Mrs. Warren's Profession.
However, she began to work primarily in erotic B movies in the early 1990s along with other scream queens of that era Tanya Roberts, Delia Sheppard, Maria Ford, and Shannon Tweed. Director Gregory Hippolyte's productions of Animal Instincts I and II, Body of Influence, and Mirror Images II featured Whirry in various stages of undress in repeated scenes. Other films were Private Obsession and Playback, a Playboy production.
In the late 1990s, she moved from softcore movies into a series of roles on mainstream network television and films, including action, sci-fi and horror genres. She had a recurring role as Mike Hammer's secretary Velda in the television series Mike Hammer, Private Eye and made guest appearances on such shows as ER, Felicity, Seinfeld, V.I.P., Murphy Brown, Malcolm in the Middle and Nash Bridges.
In 2007 she appeared on a BBC TV mini-series, Nuclear Secrets, playing Kitty Oppenheimer, wife of nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer.
She also had a small role in the Jim Carrey film, Me, Myself & Irene (2000) as a breast feeding mother in public who suddenly looks down and is horrified to find a stranger (Carrey's character) taking advantage of her lactating large breasts
