The Alumni Spotlight is a place to hear from the School of the Arts alumni community about their journeys as artists and creators.
As a writer/ director/ producer, Chloe Lenihan '16's films have screened at Academy-qualifying festivals including: Atlanta, Nordisk Panorama, and Palm Springs among others.
Chloe holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University where she received the New York Women in Film & Television scholarship. She was awarded the Katharina Otto-Bernstein grant to write and produce her thesis film How Far She Went, which won “Jury Honors” and the “Audience Award” at the Columbia University Film Festival and “Best Female Student Filmmaker” by the Director’s Guild of America East. She co-wrote, directed, and starred in All-American Sex Offender, which won “Best Web Series” at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival in 2020 and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Chloe was selected to develop her feature script, Metanoia, at the Stowe Story Lab and Cine Qua Non Storylines Lab in 2021 and then, in 2022, she revised that script at Cine Qua Non’s Revision Lab in Tzintzuntzan, Mexico.
Prior to Columbia, she worked for Oscar-winning GK Films on Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and The Aviator, and Jean-Marc Vallée’s The Young Victoria. Chloe is a graduate of the William Esper Studio acting conservatory in New York and has been a proud member of SAG since 1989.
As of Spring 2024, Chloe is in pre-production for her feature directorial debut, SMILE…the Worst is Yet to Come, a dark comedy about infertility, the generational divide, and how we define success.
Was there a specific faculty member or peer who especially inspired you while at the School of the Arts? If so, who and how?
Although I was on the producing track, Nick Proferes was a true mentor to me. We met in his Directing II class where he invested a great deal of his time providing notes and insight as I workshopped my 8-12 film, Red Dot. Nick's guidance was instrumental in the film's success -- both on the festival circuit and in my development as a filmmaker. His life experiences, candor, and sincere love of film sparked great conversation from which developed a wonderful friendship. I carry Nick's lessons with me into every new project. It was a privilege to have him as a teacher, and it is my honor to call him a friend.
