Production house SPLENDID & Co has added director Lesley Chilcott to its roster. An award-winning filmmaker, documentarian and producer, Chilcott began her career in the commercial world. She then diversified into the documentary arena as a producer of notable films such as the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth, the Barack Obama biographic film A Mother’s Promise for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, It Might Get Loud about legendary guitarists The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, and Waiting For Superman for which she received an award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Documentary from the PGA. All four of these documentaries were directed by Davis Guggenheim.
Chilcott's current documentary CodeGirl, which she directed and produced, was released last month. The film tracks the story of 5,000 girls from 60 nations as they competed in an entrepreneurship and coding competition by Technovation. Chilcott made the unprecedented move of releasing the film for free on YouTube before it hit theaters and in conjunction with Google’s Made with Code. In the five days it was available, it hit nearly one million views, and viewing parties among teen girls took place in countries all over the world including 64 Google offices worldwide.
Chilcott’s ad directing endeavors have largely been in the lifestyle realm, spanning spots for brands such as Motorola, AT&T, Corona, M&Ms and Cover Girl. Having wrapped CodeGirl, her move to SPLENDID marks a focused interest in commercials.
“SPLENDID stood out to me as a highly inventive company that not only supports their talent but is ingenious in the way that they source truly interesting and different work,” said Chilcott.
“Lesley brings such unique skill to our roster with her experience as a documentary filmmaker and commercial director,” said Erin Tauscher, SPLENDID partner and executive producer. “Her ability to elicit incredible performances from real people as well as trained actors really stood out to me when I watched her body of work for the first time.”
Taylor Ferguson, EP and Tauscher’s partner at SPLENDID related, “I’ve known Lesley for years. She’s a real influencer in the documentary world and that is exciting to us. Her work exemplifies emotional courage and truth in storytelling.”
Chilcott’s work has taken her around the world, from the states to Cologne, London, Moldova, Brazil and Costa Rica, and has allowed her to collaborate with such agencies as BBDO, Razorfish, Weber Shandwick, DDB Chicago and Grey Advertising.
SPLENDID & Co was founded in 2002 and is a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified company.
