Chelsea Hernandez(I)

At the heart of Chelsea Hernandez's storytelling are themes of community, representation and social justice. Her work, grounded in care and empathy, focuses on amplifying voices too often excluded from mainstream media. Named as one of Texas Monthly's "Texas filmmakers poised to usher in a new Golden Age of Texas cinema." Chelsea has directed and produced award-winning feature and short documentaries and produced television docuseries for El Rey Network, Paramount+ and PBS.

She is a National Emmy-nominated Director for her first feature documentary BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM (SXSW, PBS), Winner of the 2021 Silver Telly Award for Social Impact and her second feature documentary BREAKING THE NEWS (Tribeca, PBS) won the 2023 David Carr Award for Truth in Nonfiction Filmmaking. Chelsea is an 8-time Lone Star Emmy Winning Director, Producer and Editor, an SFFilm Rainin and Just Films Ford Foundation Grant Recipient, a Warner Media 150 Artist, and a fellow of Firelight Media Doc Lab, Tribeca All Access, BAVC National Mediamaker, Gotham Week and NALIP Latino Media Market.

Chelsea is the first in her family to graduate from college, receiving a degree from The University of Texas at Austin. She serves on the board of the Austin Film Society Filmmaker Advisory Committee, a proud member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Documentary Producers Alliance and is co-founder of Tejanas in Film, a collective aimed at uplifting the voices of Latina/e filmmakers in Texas.