Biography

One of the top faith-based producer/directors in the U.S. of over 18 feature films, Timothy Chey, has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, including including ‘Freedom’ (Cuba Gooding, Jr., William Sadler, Sharon Leal) that was shot on the Amistad for Showtime and also produced and directed Sony Pictures faith-based ‘Slamma Jamma’ (Michael Irvin, Chris Staples) along with ‘The Islands’, ’20 Minutes’, ‘Journey to Hell’, 'Christmas Eve', 'The Firing Squad', among 18 movies. 'The Firing Squad' opened on 800 theaters in 2024 and opened #9 at the box office nationwide.

Educated at Harvard University and USC Film School, Chey's work has been seen on E! Entertainment, The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times, VIBE TV, MTV, Daily Variety, Hollywood Reporter, TNT, USA Networks, the Dove Awards, MovieGuide Awards, People Magazine, and the New York Times.

Chey is a former atheist who found Christ in a hotel room reading the Gideon's Bible.

Chey's work has reached over 250 million homes worldwide on TV and the box office. His films have been distributed by Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Paramount Studios, Showtime, USA Networks, etc.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and is also a pro-bono trial attorney helping churches and faith-based organizations. He's won several cases in Federal and State courts.
- IMDb mini biography by: Carol Swartz

I began to turn to God through a leaf bug. I've said this many times. I saw what looked like a leaf moving. Then realized it was a bug shaped as a leaf, it's only defense mechanism. How could that come from nothing? There had to be a designer.

I showed our last film, '20 Minutes' at Cannes last year (2019). I think we were the only faith-based film at the festival/market. I now know why. No one applauded. They just looked at me and said I spoke about God too much and left.

I was an atheist until I was in my 30's. So I was practicing law and then dove into film producing and directing. I did my first film at around age 29. But I had a real emptiness. I found Christ and Christ changed my life. So I set out to make faith-based films and I was one of the pioneers along with my friend Rich Christiano. It was a wonderful time because we weren't making faith-based films to make money but to share the Gospel.