| Whitney Sudler-Smith | |
| Birth Place: | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Other Names: | Whitney Smith |
| Occupation: | film and television director |
| Years Active: | 1996–present |
| Parents: | Patricia Altschul |
Whitney Sudler-Smith (born June 2, 1968) is an American filmmaker, television director, and a 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 an executive producer on the Savannah and New Orleans spin-off shows.[1]
Sudler-Smith was born June 2, 1968 in Washington, D.C., however he grew 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. He studied at Oxford University and the Alliance Française in Paris. His late father Lon Hayes Smith was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which is a peninsula.
In 1996, Sudler-Smith directed two small films Going for Baroque and Afternoon Delight.[3] In 1998, he released an Indie film Bubba and Ike, a "redneck buddy comedy" starring Jesse Borrego and Elisa Gabrielli which was first screened at the Austin Film Festival. In 2002, Sudler-Smith wrote and directed Torture TV, another Indie film starring Danny Huston and Trevor Goddard.[4] Sudler-Smith is also a screenwriter. In 2010, he directed the documentary Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston about Roy Halston, a fashion designer. The film was met with mostly negative reviews and has a rating of 33% on review aggregating site Rottentomatoes.com.
Sudler-Smith is the creator and executive producer of Southern Charm, a reality show on Bravo which chronicles the social life of Charleston, SC.[5] He was 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, Patricia Altschul, is the widow of Arthur Goodhart Altschul Sr., the prominent New York art collector and philanthropist who was a 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 which Patricia Altschul bought in downtown Charleston.[9] Sudler-Smith is in pre-production on the scripted comedy Family Office.