One fast way to find ideas is to search the Shrub and Tree forums for similar posts. Here is a link to a search I did in the Shrub forum using the words "screen shade".

You can do the same thing in the Trees forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shrubs forum

Hi
Can you tell more about condition of shade . Shaded by building ?, all day shade by what ? . filtered sun ? no sun at all? , morning sun/afternoon shade?
If you provide more informations , you will get better answer(s).....yama

Here is some info about cherry laurel (a very pretty plant) from MSU's web site:

Prunus caroliniana). You may guess by the name that it is native to the U. S. from Coastal Virginia to northern Florida and west to Louisiana. It has few pest problems, a rapid growth rate and is really quite well adapted to our state.

The Cherry Laurel is widely used in many parts of the southeast as a specimen plant, hedge, and screen or as an effective windbreak. It has very attractive, glossy dark green foliage that remains year round. It can be pruned for topiary work or sheared as a hedge. Nevertheless it will look very good if left to naturally form a dense rounded shrub or tree. Often you will see the Cherry Laurel with its lower branches pruned up about 4 feet or so as a small tree with a single trunk. Give it plenty of room since left unattended it will quietly grow 20 to 30 feet tall with a spread of 15 to 25 feet! The national champion Cherry Laurel located in Lakeland, Florida is 47 feet tall and 55 feet wide!

In addition to superb foliage and multiple uses the Cherry Laurel features a white, fragrant flower in early spring.

Sounds like the spot for hollies and hemlocks.

In response to yama -- the spot is between two houses, close together. Therefore, all day shade. Almost no sun ever reaches that area.

first thought is aucuba japonica. should be easy to find, too. here is a list with some others that you may want to look at including podocarpus macrophylla, which i like for the texture of the foliage.

Here is a link that might be useful: shade plants - floridata

I have a similar yard and needed a screen/backdrop as well. About the best I can do is some filtered morning sun. I put in Chindo Viburnums last year.
GAmud

Today I saw someone with a GORGEOUS lorapetalum shrub under a large tree. It provided quite a nice screen and it was in a shadier location that I would have expected. I'm going to move one of mine that seems too large for it's current home, and use it as a screen in a shady area too!

GGG