Liza Chasin

Liza Chasin’s name pops up a lot if you’re into movies with some actual meat on their bones. She’s got her fingerprints all over “Les Misérables” (2012), which, let’s face it, is basically Oscar bait with all that singing, heartbreak, and those grime-smeared revolutionaries. Then there’s “About a Boy” (2002)—remember Hugh Grant as that charmingly clueless man-child, trying to pretend he has a kid so he can meet women? Classic early-2000s awkwardness mixed with a bit of heart. Chasin helped bring that weirdly touching story to life, making sure it wasn’t just another forgettable rom-com. But don’t box her in—she can do tension and grit, too. “Darkest Hour” (2017) is a whole different animal, cranking up the stakes with Churchill at the helm, chain-smoking his way through WWII and trying not to let the world fall apart. It’s not just another dusty period piece; it’s got that sweaty-palmed urgency, the kind that grows under pressure when history’s literally being written in real time. Chasin knows how to pick projects that actually say something, whether it’s a musical epic, an offbeat comedy, or a political thriller. She’s not some overnight sensation, either. Her career is stacked—decades in the trenches of film production, shaping stories that actually stick with you. If you’ve walked out of a theater thinking, “Wow, that hit a little harder than I expected,” chances are someone like Liza Chasin was quietly making it all happen behind the curtain.