Shannon Kook was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother is natively South African, and his father is from the Mauritian Islands. He is a classically trained actor from the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada, accepting only 12 acting students a year. Shannon also graduated with the Edna Khubyar Acting Award, a scholarship awarded 'in recognition of exceptional talent and achievement' after a full theatre program.

From there, Kook was cast as a lead in several shows in theatre, immediately performing on the main stage at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton for the world premiere musical of The Forbidden Phoenix as The Monkey King's son. Film and TV proved to be a great fit for Kook, soon doing leads and guest stars he eventually won The ACTRA Award, was selected as a Toronto International Film Festival 'TIFF Rising Star', and received The Reelworld Film Festival Trailblazer Award.

Most recently Shannon can be seen as a Regular on The 100 (The CW), a Supporting in all 3 of The Conjuring (Warner Bros) films, Recurring on Nancy Drew (The CW) and The Mysterious Benedict Society (Disney+).

Outside of acting Kook spends a lot of his time doing Taekwondo, Jiu-Jitsu & Kickboxing, all styles of dance from Salsa & Bachata to Hip Hop & Ballet, and behind camera shooting and retouching portrait photography. He speaks Afrikaans, some French and is working on his Mandarin, guitar, and piano.