Remembering Summer Chastant
Summer Chastant passed away in her Los Angeles home on Dec 17, 2022. She died by suicide after a struggle with bipolar disorder. Summer never let this chronic mental illness and the stigma attached to it define her. Indeed, it was her wish that everyone was more open, honest, and informed about mental health and less judgmental about the people dealing with it.
Summer was an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and highly trained actor, who created the acclaimed digital series Namaste, Bitches as well as the series Rage Room and the short film A Little Bit Pregnant. She was a creative, kind, and loving person whose sly, wry sense of humor snuck up on you when you least expected it. She wrote comedy, dramedy, and drama with equal force. She loved to laugh and build new and exciting worlds for her characters to inhabit. She always came up with brilliant, original ideas, seemingly from an endless font. She read constantly and devoured fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs with equal vigor, ideally looking for female authors and other unique voices. She also loved cats. She had two of her own—Spirit, who had been by her side for fifteen years—and Mimi, whom she rescued from the street. But she would pause to pet or pick up any cat she saw.
Summer’s half-hour television pilots placed in the Austin Screenwriting Competition, Slamdance Screenplay Competition, and Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, among others. In addition to being a finalist for the 2020 Sundance Episodic Lab, Summer was an alumna of IFP’s Screen Forward Lab. Since 2021, she co-captained the Slamdance Episodes programming team, where she loved championing new and distinctive filmmakers. Before a career in writing and filmmaking, she was a highly respected and beloved yoga teacher in New York and Los Angeles, teaching at prominent studios and leading retreats for dedicated students. She was also a sought-after DJ.
Summer was born in Youngwood, Pennsylvania, on November 22, 1979, to Helen Shirey and Jack Costello and was raised by Helen and Clifford Shirey. She spent her youth taking acting and dance classes in Pittsburgh and going on summer trips to Los Angeles to visit her sister. During this period, some of her many adventures included underage admission to The Viper Room, where she hung out with Leonardo DiCaprio and Flea. She received her undergraduate degree in acting from the University of Utah and her MFA in acting from the prestigious Old Globe Theater program at the University of San Diego. She also won an acting award from the Kennedy Center.
After graduate school, Summer returned to New York to pursue an acting career before becoming a yoga teacher. In this iteration of herself she met her future husband, Boyd, who was her student at Kula Yoga Project. They married a couple of years later in a private ceremony in Prospect Park before honeymooning in Rome, Sorrento, Capri, and Positano. Shortly after they returned, Summer and Boyd moved to Los Angeles where she pursued her dream of writing for TV.
Summer loved music of all types—from hip-hop to drum and bass to rock to dance and everything in between (everything except country). She frequently went to concerts and festivals to see her favorite performers. In her spare time, she might mix all her favorite songs on her turntables, ideally, on vinyl. And if you were incredibly fortunate, you were invited to her post-Coachella party, joyfully called “Summerchella,” and got to see her DJ live.
Aside from music, fitness was an essential part of Summer’s life. She could be found doing yoga, at Barry’s Bootcamp or in Pilates most days of the week. She took up surfing during the pandemic. Even after breaking her leg at San Onofre State Beach, she quickly and happily returned to the same beach for morning surf sessions.
Additionally, Summer loved to travel and experience other cultures. She led yoga retreats to Tulum (when it was still on generator power and before it was home to Park Slope South), Nicaragua, and Umbria, Italy. She traveled to Thailand for relief work. She made her own spiritual retreat through India. She found new inspiration for writing when she traveled to Barcelona. She deepened her love of surfing when she hiked her board through the jungle to reach Playa La Lancha in Punta Mita. She even found beautiful, lightly touched surf breaks in Costa Rica, which she intended to make a permanent part of her life.
Summer is survived by her loving husband, Boyd Chastant, her mother, Helen Shirey, and her sister, Kim McLeod.
A memorial service and celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, January 14th. Please RSVP and see details here: https://pp.events/summerchella2023
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Summer’s name to the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI): https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI/Donate-to-NAMI or supporting her favorite film festival at Slamdance: https://slamdance.com/donate-to-slamdance/ .
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health, suicide, substance-use crisis, or emotional distress, reach out 24/7 to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) by dialing or texting 988 or using chat services at suicidepreventionlifeline.org to connect to a trained crisis counselor. You can also get crisis text support via the Crisis Text Line by texting NAMI to 741741.