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ARTIST - SONGWRITER - PRODUCER - COMPOSER - SCREENWRITER
Summer Payton is a multi-hyphenate creative from Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, Summer was encouraged to explore her creativity and thus she found a love for multiple artistic expressions and it inspired her to pursue a career in the arts. Her journey led her to New York University, Tisch School of the Arts’ Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music where she fully developed her artistry. Later, at the 1500 Sound Academy, Summer enhanced her engineering and music production skills under the mentorship of Grammy award winning music producer, Rance Dopson of the legendary band, 1500 or Nothin’. Musically, Summer is an r&b singer, songwriter, producer, and musician. Summer released her debut album, “Golden Hour” on her golden birthday, December 25th, which features a stunning array of songs straight from Summer’s heart and soul and continues to be her proudest accomplishment to date. Her next single, “My Life,” was an original song from the short film Save A Life. “My Life,” an inspirational anthem, touched audiences across the globe, with specific success in the UK as it reached #10 on Amazon UK’s Hot New Releases in R&B Songs chart, as well as charted #20 on the UK Soul Top 30 and debuted on the UK Global Soul Chart Show as a new entry at #9. Most recently, Summer released her first holiday single, “Christmas Magic” which was featured in the Netflix film, Meet Me Next Christmas.
In addition to her own musical projects, Summer enjoys composing music for film and television, like she did for the award winning short film by Regina Hoyles, Adullam, as well as Felicia Pride’s critically acclaimed short film Look Back At It, and the highly watched short film by Vivian D. Payton, Save A Life. She is scoring the upcoming LMU thesis short film, Blood Pact, written by Taylor McMullan and directed by Phillips Payton.
Save A Life, Summer’s first project as a film producer was an official selection of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival as well as the 2022 British Urban Film Festival. She has since gone on to produce other short films including the upcoming, Message For The King, directed by Phillips Payton.
Summer took a page out of her screenwriter-mother’s book and began writing her own content as a vessel for her creativity. She has since developed multiple pilot scripts in partnership with her mother, Vivian D. Payton, as a screenwriting duo. Their pilot, Quarter-Life, was an official selection of the 2022 Sherman Oaks Film Festival and a Quarter Finalist in the Female Voices Rock Film Festival.
In TV production, she has served in many capacities before finding a home and a love of Post Productions. She served as Story Producer for season one of OWN’s Ladies Who List and season five of VH1’s Love and Hip Hop Miami and was Supervising Producer of Fuse and World of Wonder’s Big Freedia Means Business S1 & 2.
As a highly motivated innovator fueled by a love of the arts, Summer is committed to perfecting her talents and is dedicated to leaving her mark on the entertainment industry.
News & Updates
Composer’s Diversity Collective selects Summer Payton for Composer of the Week Spotlight
New Seres Slaycation from Crave and World of Wonder
Featuring music from Summer Payton
