MATTHEW CHAPMAN

Agent: Conrad Williams

Biography: Matthew Chapman is an American and British citizen but was raised in England. He is the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin.

He is the writer and director of six feature films – most recently THE LEDGE, which starred Terrence Howard, Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler, and Charlie Hunnam and played in competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival – as well as having several solo writing credits including REACHING FOR THE MOON, selected for both the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and the 2013 Berlinale, and THE AMERICAN GUEST, a Brazilian-set historical drama series for HBO Max.

Apart from producing credits on many of his films, he also produced the Chris Gerolmo film CITIZEN X for HBO, through his company, Asylum Films, and co-produced the Brazilian Academy Award winning documentary, THE MAN WHO BOTTLED CLOUDS, directed by Lirio Ferreira.

He has written for Harpers Magazine, famous for its literary journalism, and the longest continuously published magazine in America, the Huffington Post, National Geographic, and other publications. Chapman has also written two non-fiction books: TRIALS OF THE MONKEY – AN ACCIDENTAL MEMOIR (Picador, 2002) and 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS – DARWIN, INTELLIGENT DESIGN, GOD, OXYCONTIN, AND OTHER ODDITIES (HarperCollins, 2007).

Chapman is the originator, co-founder and president of ScienceDebate.org – a website created to persuade presidential candidates to hold debates on science. His thinking was that although science will determine our national and global future the presidential candidates rarely discuss it. ScienceDebate’s members and signatories include more than 20 Nobel laureates, most of Obama’s science cabinet, and more or less every university and university president in America.