Lesley Chilcott

Lesley Chilcott is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable feature documentary films include Watson, Waiting for "Superman", CodeGirl,  It Might Get Loud, and An Inconvenient Truth which won two Academy Awards. Chilcott is known for documentaries about social justice issues such as climate change, the environment, women's equality, and education. She directed the audience-favored Netflix docuseries, Arnold (2023), about the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a bodybuilder, movie star, and politician.

Career
Chilcot has explored social and environmental justice in projects such as An Inconvenient Truth, documenting former vice president Al Gore’s efforts to fight climate change. The film, which Chilcott produced, won two Oscars including Best Documentary and Best Original Song and helped spark a worldwide conversation about the state of our planet. She directed and produced Watson, an action-adventure documentary centering on Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, a man seeking to protect the oceans and marine life. Shot in the United States, Costa Rica, and Tonga the film documents his adventures with underwater cinematography. After premiering at Tribeca, Watson was broadcast by Animal Planet/Discovery Channel and aired in over 50 countries in 2020. Previously, she directed and produced Codegirl, which follows an annual competition where teenage girls design an app that solves a problem in their community. Chilcott filmed teams all over the world from Moldova to Mexico, documenting how exposure to technology and computer science can transform girls' lives. Codegirl was the first movie to have its premiere exclusively on YouTube before being released in theaters and other outlets. The idea for the film came after she directed the short film Codestars, which garnered over 20 million views online. Filming again in Costa Rica in 2014, Chilcott directed the feature documentary, A Small Section of the World, about a village of women coffee producers from the Talamanca mountains.

Recent projects have explored infamous true crimes that have fascinated our culture for decades by dispelling the mythology that surrounds major moments in our culture. She produced the premium docuseries Amityville: An Origin Story which premiered on 23 April 2023 on MGM+ and directed and produced the six-part docuseries Helter Skelter: An American Myth which streamed on MGM+. She serves as executive producer of the recently announced Hulu four-part docuseries Mastermind, about Ann Burgess, the architect of the FBI's infamous “mindhunter” method.

As a producer, she has also tackled the state of the American education system with Waiting for Superman, for which she won the Producers Guild Award for Best Documentary, and in the cult rock documentary It Might Get Loud she examined the lives of guitarists The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White. Other notable Chilcott-produced films include A Mother's Promise, a biographical short film about Barack Obama, and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power a sequel to An Inconvenient Truth.

She directed Arnold (2023), a three-part docuseries exploring the life and work of Arnold Schwarzenegger which premiered on Netflix on 7 June 2023, and after five days ranked fourth in the Netflix Global Top 10 most-watched. Forthcoming projects include Wolves, which examines the plight of wolves in the West and examines their status as one of the most misunderstood animals on the planet and Hot Stuff, a look at the enduring influence of disco.

Chilcott is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Directors Guild of America, and the Producers Guild of America. She directs commercials at Bodega Studios.

Personal life
When not in Los Angeles she and her husband love spending time in Costa Rica enjoying nature. As a longtime vegetarian, Chilcott enjoys seeking out vegetarian and vegan cuisine with her husband.

Filmography
Feature-Length Films:
 * An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
 * It Might Get Loud (2008)
 * Waiting for “Superman” (2010)
 * Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird (2013)
 * A Small Section of the World (2014)
 * CodeGirl (2015)
 * An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017)
 * Maxima (2019)
 * Watson (2019)
 * Wolves (Status: In Production)

Television Series:
 * Helter Skelter: An American Myth (2020)
 * Amityville: An Origin Story (2022)
 * Arnold (2023)
 * Mastermind (Status: In Production)