Chantel was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa and is a recent graduate of Columbia University’s MFA in Film (Screenwriting/Directing) where she has also taught film history and theory as an assistant to Professors Annette Insdorf and Rob King. Her thesis film, Ons Albertinia (Our Albertinia) was awarded a 2018 National Board of Review Student Grant, as well as the Columbia University/Big Sky Edit Visionary Award.

As one of the few Columbia films to ever shoot in Sub-Saharan Africa, Chantel dedicated more than two years to getting Ons Albertinia made, winning a Katharina Otto-Bernstein Thesis Film Fund Grant to shoot in 2017. The film was also selected for inclusion in the 2018 ASCAP/Columbia scoring workshop. Chantel is currently developing her first feature, Wit Gesigte (Pale Faces), set in South Africa in the late 1600’s.