Biography
Born near the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in Mt. Airy, North Carolina—a town known by many as the hometown of actor Andy Griffith, and the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry highlighted in The Andy Griffith Show—Chip Williford, the son of a Pentecostal minister and a former preschool teacher turned homemaker, grew up in geographic locations across America, including South Carolina, Ohio and New York due to his father’s work in ministry. A kind gentleman with strong doses of honor, integrity and humor, Chip learned hard work, innovation, perseverance, fortitude, strength, and love for the community from his parents.
A photographer, videographer, filmmaker, documentarian, family historian, researcher, and writer of prose, poetry and short stories, Chip is also the Treasurer and Co-Host for Poetry Street, which was founded by Susan Dingle and Robert “Bubbie Brown” as part of the East End Arts’ JumpstART program. He has co-produced and filmed the YouTube Series “Poetry Street on The Road,” and is featured on YouTube on “America, Please Learn From The Scars Of History”. He produced and co-directed, “Bohemia, Then and Now,” an educational historical documentary that was internationally recognized and also viewed by Bohemian American citizens along with the Bohemian Ambassador at the National Hall Bohemia Embassy in New York City following a full house premiere and red carpet reception at The Bohemia Historical Society Museum.
He’s the owner of Chip Williford Productions. For the past 10 years he has freelanced many times as Production Assistant, Talent Assistant Crew Manager and Back Stage Manager with Chew Entertainment, as well as worked on several annual BET Honors, Night Of Inspiration Concerts, Finding Ashley Stewart Tour Finales and other monumental events, award shows and concerts, including the Apollo Gala and Showtime At The Apollo. Chip is a constant at Carnegie Hall, The Apollo Theater and Brooklyn’s Kings Theater. He also worked at Madison Square Gardens for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, the Musique Concert at The Van Nostrand Performance Arts Center, and most recently at The Tribeca Performance Arts Center for The 47th Annual Audelco Awards for Excellence in Black Theater - Red Carpet.
It is clear that Chip is well known in the arts industry and is even sought after as it is said that he is professional, candid, unbiased, a great leader, good listener and a truthful story teller.
Since 2013, Chip has been working in Riverhead. He is Technical Director and Visual Artist at the Suffolk Theater. Prior to that, he worked as a Purser/ Flight Attendant for 15 years with United Airlines. He has also worked for Columbia Home Loans as a Home Loan Officer on new, refinanced and reverse home loans, simultaneously, he worked on completing a degree in Television Production at Suffolk County Community College/ Ammerman Campus.
At the tender age of twenty one, Chip left home and moved all the way to Northern California to set out in search of his truth. It was there that he was inspired to capture the amazing genius of creation on film and contribute to its honest reality with reverence and humility. He and two friends, in 1984, started a business called Marvelous Productions Promotions through which they developed a show named, “Let’s Talk.” hosted by one of his mentors, Minister ElTyna McCree. Their first guest was none other than American singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer, Lou Rawls—who creatively developed the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon in 1980 and has since raised over $200 million through the show. From there, Chip went on to produce another show, for the next two and a half years called “30 Marvelous Minutes” because as their catch phrase stated, “Because Every Minute Counts.” It tackled difficult and heartfelt subjects such as drug addiction, AIDS, homelessness, Habitat for Humanity and community concerns, as well as concerts, and entertainment in the community.
He is more than a mentor to the young people who intern with him at Chip Williford Productions, studied with him at SCCC and those he works with at Suffolk Theater—he is a guiding light—a well lit city, if you would—a plethora of experience and encouragement, inspiring them to stretch themselves and to reach fearlessly for those things the world has told them are unattainable. He motivationally states, “Life is a one shot deal. Shoot your best shot.”