Summer Chastant is a writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. She has set up and developed her original content for television with various elite production companies including Amblin Television.
Summer’s digital series, Namaste, Bitches – which she created, wrote, executive produces and stars in, is featured in The New York Times, MTV, and Paste Magazine, among others. It is dubbed “the Girls of Yoga” by LA Weekly. With millions of views, Namaste, Bitches is named in top lists of “best original series” alongside Master of None, Jerry Seinfeld’s Driving in Cars with Comedians, and High Maintenance. The second season of Namaste, Bitches premieres on November 17th, 2022.
The Source highlighted Rage Room— Summer’s short-form digital series, which she also created, executive produced, wrote and stars in— as one of the most notable female- created projects during the Sundance Film Festival. Rage Room premiered at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival and is currently available on REVRY TV.
Her short film, A Little Bit Pregnant, won Best Comedy at the Brooklyn Women’s Film Festival and Best Dark Comedy at the Oregon Short Film Festival and accumulated nominations in the categories of Best Director, Best Actress, and Best New Filmmaker.
Summer’s half-hour television pilots have placed in the Austin Screenwriting Competition, Slamdance Screenplay Competition, Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, among others. In addition to being a finalist for the 2020 Sundance Episodic Lab, Summer is an alumna of IFP’s Screen Forward Lab, has an acting award from The Kennedy Center, and holds an MFA from The Old Globe/USD—which is where she premiered her self-directed, one-woman play, Shards.
Summer has co-captain’d for the Episodes programming team since the 2021 season of the Slamdance Film Festival.
Image: Kendrick Brinson/The New York Times