Chet Thomas: Mormon Director
Chet Thomas made his feature director debut on the documentary film The Abolitionist, which focuses on the work of Tim Ballard to fight against the child trafficking. In this film, Thomas is teamed up with Academy Award-winning producer Gerald Molen, with whom he assisted on Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, and Darrin Fletcher, with whom he has worked on several other projects. Thomas, Molen, and Fletcher are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Before working with Molen, Thomas worked at DreamWorks for several years in the story department, collaborating on Amistad, Deep Impact, and Saving Private Ryan, among other projects. He moved onto feature development and played an active role in the films Meet the Parents, Mouse Hunt, Road to Perdition, Small Soldiers and others.
Thomas directed the short film Simplicity (2002), which received first place in the short film competition at the 2002 LDS Film Festival. He is the founder of Independent Student Media.
He produced the film Take, starring Academy Award-nominated actors Minnie Driver and Jeremy Renner, which has won many ‘Best of’ categories in festivals around the country. He is a producer on the film The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, scheduled for release by Walden Media at Christmas 2015.
Thomas was born on June 10, 1969. He earned his bachelor’s degree in theatre arts from Brigham Young University.
