Whitney Sudler-Smith

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Whitney Sudler-Smith (born June 2, 1968) is an American filmmaker, television director, and classically trained guitarist. He is the creator and executive producer of Bravo's Southern Charm, a reality docu-series about life in Charleston, South Carolina. He was also an executive producer on the Savannah and New Orleans spin-off shows.^[1]

Early years[edit]

Sudler-Smith was born June 2, 1968, in Washington, D.C., but brought up in Virginia. His mother is Patricia Altschul (then Pat Dey-Smith),^[2] a socialite. He graduated from Georgetown Day School and George Washington University, and studied at Oxford University and the Alliance Française in Paris. His late father Lon Hayes Smith was an Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley and resided on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Career[edit]

In 1996, Sudler-Smith directed two small films Going for Baroque and Afternoon Delight.^[3] In 1998, he released the Indie film Bubba and Ike, a "redneck buddy comedy" starring Jesse Borrego and Elisa Gabrielli that was first screened at the Austin Film Festival. In 2002, Smith wrote and directed Torture TV, another Indie film that starred Danny Huston and Trevor Goddard.^[4] He is also a screenwriter.

In 2010, Sudler-Smith directed the documentary Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston about Roy Halston, a fashion designer. The film was met with mostly negative reviews and currently holds a 33% on review aggregating site Rottentomatoes.com.

Sudler-Smith is the creator and executive producer of Southern Charm, a reality show on Bravo that chronicles the social life of Charleston, SC.^{[5][failed verification]}

Sudler-Smith was also the executive producer of two spin-off series, Southern Charm Savannah^[6] and Southern Charm New Orleans.^[7] While neither show was officially cancelled, they have not aired since 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Sudler-Smith's mother is the widow of Arthur Goodhart Altschul Sr., the prominent New York art collector and philanthropist who was longtime General Partner of Goldman Sachs.^[8] When Sudler-Smith announced plans during the show's first season to open a restaurant in Charleston, his mother told him, “I think that’s a little out of your realm.” The show is sometimes filmed in Mikell House, a 9,480-square-foot mansion built in 1851 that Patricia Altschul bought in downtown Charleston.^[9]

Sudler-Smith is in pre-production on the scripted comedy Family Office.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Whitney Sudler-Smith at IMDb
• Whitney Sudler-Smith - Bio on BravoTV.com