Jessica Chermayeff

Creative and Production Executive

Leads creative and production across advertising, editorial, film, and television—working with brands, institutions, and talent to develop and deliver high-quality work.

Known for bringing together strong creative collaborators, navigating complex client environments, and building work that is both culturally relevant and grounded in real business objectives.

Client-Work

Aveeno × TOGETHXR, The Strength Issue

  • Editorial campaign; film, photography, and brand

Editorial-led campaign exploring how female athletes are represented, reframing strength through the perspectives and experiences of women in sport.

Led creative development and production across film, photography, and brand—bringing together a network of collaborators to build a cohesive body of work across platforms. The campaign was designed to move fluidly between editorial and advertising, creating a unified visual and narrative language.

  1. thestrengthissue.com
  2. WWD, EXCLUSIVE: Aveeno Teams With Togethxr to Champion Women Athletes in The Strength Issue

Kehinde Wiley, The National Gallery—Prelude

  • Film + multi-screen installation; National Gallery, London

Large-scale film and installation project developed in collaboration with Kehinde Wiley Studio.

Led full production from concept through execution, including a six-screen installation designed for the Sunley Room at the center of the museum’s collection. Filmed on location in Norway just prior to the pandemic, the project brought together an international team across art, fashion, and film.

The work engages with the visual language of Western landscape painting while reframing questions of power, representation, and absence—situating contemporary Black figures within a historical canon.

  1. Cinematography by Jasper Wolf
  2. The Guardian, Kehinde Wiley: The Prelude review – old masterpieces, new illusions

Consumer Reports, Dads / Testers / Her America

  • Multi-campaign brand platform; film and digital

Series of campaigns focused on shifting Consumer Reports from institutional authority toward a younger more human-centered audience.

Led creative production and development across multiple campaigns, building narrative systems that extended across formats and over time. The work emphasized real people and everyday decision-making, repositioning trust through experience rather than expertise alone.

Lifetime, Her America—50 Women, 50 States

Nationwide storytelling campaign; film, photography, audio, and print

Nationwide storytelling platform developed in response to the 2016 election, created to capture a broad, unfiltered portrait of American women at a moment when many felt unheard.

Led production across a year-long, multi-format project spanning film, photography, audio, and print—traveling to all 50 states with an all-female crew. The work included over 30 short films, a photography publication, and radio pieces, each designed for the medium best suited to the story. The project brought together local voices, photographers, and contributors across the country, creating a distributed network of storytellers and audiences. It functioned not only as a campaign, but as a living archive of perspectives—expanding beyond Lifetime’s core audience to reflect a wider cultural landscape.

  1. Award: Silver Clio

Lifetime, Self Made: Mission to Honor

  • Short-form campaign; broadcast and social

Series of films centered on the experiences of women who have served in the U.S. military, developed for Lifetime’s Self Made series.

Directed and led production across a set of character-driven pieces designed for broadcast interstitials and digital distribution. The work focused on direct, personal storytelling, foregrounding voice and lived experience.

  1. Award: Promax Gold, Best Social Cause Promo or Campaign (North America)

Apple, New IOS release

  • Brand campaign; film

Creative and production collaboration within Apple’s brand system, delivering Executive Producer support and creative direction.

Worked within a highly structured creative environment emphasizing clarity, restraint, and precision, contributing to projects that balance emotional storytelling with disciplined execution.

Systems and Operation

GLG

  • Video, content infrastructure

In-house content system—product, marketing, and executive communications

Built and led a video function aligned with the company’s core product and communications strategy.

Originally commissioned to launch, produce, and direct a video interview series as a new product line and marketing tool, the work expanded into a broader system—developing production workflows, repeatable formats, and a scalable pipeline. Launched 10+ original video series and led video communications for the CEO.

Interviewees included Arianna Huffington, Kathleen Sebelius, Jill Abramson, Jon Huntsman Jr., Dustin Lance Black, and Jake Sullivan.

The work connected content across product, marketing, and executive messaging—positioning video as a core part of the company’s offering.

Documentary

The Come Up

  • Original docuseries; Freeform / Hulu

Series following a group of young creatives navigating ambition, identity, and artistic life in New York City.

Created, directed, and executive produced the series, with Cousins as the production company. Commissioned by Freeform and distributed on Hulu.

The project captures a generation defining itself in real time—balancing aspiration, instability, and visibility within a shifting cultural landscape.

  1. The Cut, Of Course There’s Now a Dimes Square Reality Show

Senior Prom

  • Short documentary film; PBS

For LGBTQ+ generations who came of age in the decades before the Stonewall riots, prom was emblematic of a world they were unable to experience as their authentic selves.

Set within Triangle Square, an LGBTQ+ senior community in Los Angeles, the film follows residents as they recreate the prom they never had—an evening of dancing, intimacy, and reflection shaped by a lifetime of cultural change.

  1. Directed and produced the film.
  2. Co-produced with ITVS, PBS, and Independent Lens.
  3. Premiered June 2021 on PBS Voices.

Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne

  • Docuseries; Hulu

Global docuseries exploring sexuality, gender, and intimacy through a first-person lens.

Co-directed the series with Ana Veselic, working closely with Cara Delevingne to build a project grounded in her curiosity, humor, and unpredictability. The approach leaned into her personal point of view—allowing the series to move between vulnerability, chaos, and genuine inquiry as she engaged with people and ideas across a range of cultural contexts.

Produced during COVID, the series required a highly collaborative, distributed production model, working with teams internationally to develop and execute the work across locations and conditions.

  1. Vogue, Cara Delevingne Opens Up About Sobriety and Self-Care at 30

Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace

  • PBS; Feature documentary

Documentary following artist Kehinde Wiley as he expands his practice beyond portraiture of men to create a new body of work centered on Black women.

Produced the film, which traces Wiley’s process from street casting in New York through the creation of couture garments in collaboration with Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy, culminating in a series of large-scale paintings that reframe representations of Black femininity within the tradition of classical portraiture.

The film offers a close view into Wiley’s working methodology—from concept to canvas—capturing both the precision of his practice and the broader cultural implications of his work.

Awards

  1. Emmy-nominated
  2. Academy Award shortlisted
  3. Winner, Best Short Documentary (SXSW)
  4. Winner, Best Short (Provincetown Film Festival)
  5. Goethe Director’s Award (RAFF Toronto)

About

Jessica Chermayeff is a creative and production executive working across advertising, editorial, film, and television.

She is a director, executive producer, and founder of Cousins, a boutique production company focused on premium documentary and brand work. Her work spans both independent and network environments, leading projects from development through delivery across formats.

She has created, executive produced, and directed original series including The Come Up, and co-directed the Hulu docuseries Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne—projects that bring together narrative storytelling, talent, and multi-platform distribution.

Her background is in documentary filmmaking. She produced the SXSW-winning, Emmy-nominated, and Oscar-shortlisted Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace, and has directed and produced nonfiction work for PBS, CNN, and The New York Times.

In parallel, she has led large-scale brand and institutional work, including executive producing Lifetime’s Her America: 50 Women, 50 States, and developing campaigns and content platforms for clients including Apple and Consumer Reports.

She has also built content systems in-house—designing production pipelines, creating repeatable formats, and aligning creative output with product and marketing strategy.

Across her work, she brings together high-caliber creative teams and leads projects through complex creative and production environments. Her approach combines creative direction with production leadership, with a focus on execution, collaboration, and long-term value.

Awards include the SXSW Grand Jury Prize, Emmy nomination, Academy Award shortlist, Silver Clio, and Promax Gold.

Contact

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