Composite plates and shells are an inevitable part of the modern structural, aerospace and marine industry. Load-carrying plates and shells must be optimized from a frequency viewpoint to avoid resonance. In the present study, a global optimization framework is developed by combining the iterative improvement ability of genetic algorithm (GA) with the brute accuracy of finite element (FE) method to optimize the fundamental frequency of composite shells. Since composites are weak in shear, the shear deformation effect is considered by using the first-order shear deformation theory in the finite element formulation. The ply angles are considered as the design variables. However, only discrete ply angles with 5° increments in the ± 90° search space are considered. Various numerical studies are carried out to check the validity and accuracy of the present FE-GA approach. A wide range of results for rectangular and cylindrical shell panels with different radius of curvatures, boundary conditions and carrying distributed mass at different positions are presented.