Derek A. Chandler

Creative Producer | Storyteller | Media Strategist
Co-Host, Double Good Mojo Show

"He was supposed to be a doctor. Then the entertainment industry made him a better offer — and everything got more interesting."

Derek A. Chandler is a creative producer, storyteller, media strategist, and co-host of the Double Good Mojo Show — a long-form video podcast he created with his wife Maria Chandler at the intersection of comedy, consciousness, human potential, and the art of living well.

His career has been anything but linear. Which is exactly why it produced someone worth listening to.

The Foundation

Derek grew up in New Orleans — a city that shapes people in specific and irreversible ways. He was on the path to medicine when legendary television executive Brandon Tartikoff saw something in him that a stethoscope would have buried, and redirected him toward Los Angeles and the entertainment industry instead.

What followed was a career mentored by two of television's greatest creative minds. Tartikoff shaped his understanding of storytelling, audience, and execution at scale — a collaboration that produced originals including an unproduced Rodney Dangerfield sitcom, with Derek as co-executive producer alongside Tartikoff. Emmy-winning director James Burrows — whose credits span Cheers, Will & Grace, plus the Kelsey Grammer Executive Produced comedy series Girlfriends starring Tracee Ellis Ross — refined Derek's natural instincts for comedic timing, character, and what makes mass audiences respond.

His improv training at The Second City completed the foundation — honing the risk-taking instincts, adaptability, and bold storytelling approach that now runs through everything he creates across production, performance, and media.

The Pivot That Changed Everything

In 1996, Derek was invited by Deepak Chopra to the grand opening of his center in La Jolla — and later to a private family gathering in Goa, India — experiences that expanded his understanding of human potential, awareness, and performance in ways that Hollywood never quite could.

Around the same time, he made the decision to get sober. In New Orleans. Which anyone from there will tell you is either the hardest thing a person can do — or the bravest. Possibly both.

What came out the other side was a person with the comedian's timing, the strategist's precision, the recovering person's honesty, and the conscious human's depth. All of it now runs through everything he creates.

The Work

Derek's professional experience spans creative development, executive production, strategic partnerships, and media strategy across entertainment and beyond.

He developed and pitched unscripted television concepts with secured talent attachments to major agencies, working alongside respected industry figures including Sandy Grushow, Stuart Benjamin, and the late Howard Lapidis — collaborations that refined his perspective on development, packaging, and high-level execution.

He produced and narrated a documentary on post-Hurricane Katrina recovery in New Orleans — a project that drew on everything his hometown gave him and everything he'd learned since leaving it.

He was an early adopter of video podcasting, producing lifestyle and interview content featuring notable voices across industries long before the format reached its current cultural dominance.

Current Work

Derek co-creates and executive produces the Double Good Mojo Show alongside Maria Chandler — a weekly long-form video podcast distributed across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

The show reflects what Derek has always done best: create the conditions for real conversation. He opens guests up. He makes complex things feel like dinner conversation. And he brings to every episode the rare combination of a storyteller's instinct, a strategist's clarity, and a comedian's sense of exactly when to let the moment breathe.

Areas of Focus

Beyond production and media strategy, Derek's work and thinking are shaped by genuine interest in:

• Peak performance and decision-making under pressure
• Human potential, self-actualization, and personal evolution
• Wellness, longevity, and sustainable high performance
• Recovery as a creative and spiritual practice
• Comedy as a vehicle for truth

These aren't categories he researched. They're the territory he's lived in — and continues to explore, on and off the mic.

Core Strengths

Storytelling: The ability to find the human truth inside any subject and make it compelling, accessible, and real.

Strategic Development: Aligning creative vision with business outcomes — from concept through execution.

Instinct Under Pressure: Second City-trained adaptability that turns unexpected moments into the best moments.

Authentic Presence: The quality that makes guests trust him, audiences return, and partners want to build with him.

Co-host of the Double Good Mojo Show — weekly on YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts

For select projects, partnerships, and strategic collaboration: Available upon request