Chad Hartigan

Chad Alexander Hartigan (born August 31, 1982) is an Irish‑American filmmaker whose work bridges independent cinema and mainstream television. Born in Nicosia, Cyprus to an Irish father from Limerick and an American mother from Sparks, Nevada, Hartigan grew up in a household shaped by missionary service; his parents met while working for Youth with a Mission in England before settling on the island where he spent his early childhood. In 1995 the family relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where Hartigan attended Tallwood High School and cultivated a passion for theater and video production, experiences that would later inform his narrative style. He applied only to the North Carolina School of the Arts, was accepted, and graduated in 2004 with a BFA in directing, sharing a dormitory with future collaborator Aaron Katz. Hartigan’s debut feature, Luke and Brie Are on a First Date, was produced on a shoestring budget of $5,000, premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2008, and later inspired an Argentine remake, Luna en Leo, which earned an Argentine Academy nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. His second feature, This Is Martin Bonner, premiered at Sundance 2013, captured the Best of NEXT Audience Award, screened at Karlovy Vary, Stockholm and Torino, and secured the John Cassavetes Award at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The 2016 Sundance entry Morris from America earned Hartigan the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, a Gotham nomination, an Independent Spirit nod, and a place on the National Board of Review’s Top 10 Independent Films of the year, while A24 handled its distribution. In 2017 he directed an episode of HBO’s Room 104, and his fourth film Little Fish—the first he directed without writing—was released by IFC Films in February 2021 to critical acclaim despite pandemic delays. Hartigan continues to shape the indie landscape with a blend of humanistic storytelling and meticulous craft.