May 4, 2015
Penelope Jagessar Chaffer is a multi award winning documentary filmmaker, writer, feminist, children’s environmental health advocate and global environmentalist. She is the first black, female director to be nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. She has directed several well received pieces of work including “Shakespeare’s Stories” for the BBC, which was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006. She has also won over 10 awards for her British television work, including 5 gold national and international Promax awards and is a double BAFTA, Royal Television Society and Grierson (British Documentary Awards) nominee.
A documentary auteur, her films display a singularly unique perspective on the world we live in with The Observer newspaper in Britain calling her work “a joy to watch.” She is the director, producer and writer of Toxic Baby, which will be released as the world’s first interactive documentary app for the iPad.
Penelope has been named one of the top 100 Green Online Influencers and has been awarded the “Mom On A Mission” award by Healthy Child, Healthy World, the non profit named by Vanity Fair magazine as one of Mrs. Michelle Obama’s two favorite charity organizations. Penelope has given two well received TED talks, the first with Professor Tyrone Hayes on the effects of toxic chemicals on babies and children, which has been viewed over 300,000 times and the second at the influential TEDxBrussels.
A mother of two, she lives in Brooklyn, New York City.