‘The Chair’ Season 1: Release Date, Cast, Trailer and More

July 30, 2021

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Picture this: a prestigious university, a media scandal, a rebelling staff, and plenty of personal drama. No, we’re not talking about your college days — this is the setting for Sandra Oh‘s new Netflix miniseries, The Chair. Since you’re surely interested, we’ve compiled everything you need to prep for the series down below.

The Chair Release Date and Where You Can Watch It

First things first, The Chair is quickly approaching its August 20 premiere date. The series will be available to stream exclusively on Netflix.

What is The Chair?

The Chair is another college-set drama series, this time interested in the life of a University department chair. The Netflix miniseries follows Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh), the first woman to chair the English department of a prestigious school and one of the few staff members of color at the university. The new job description has challenges built into it, but they’re amplified by all the fires being set throughout her personal and professional life. Expect the series to take a darkly comedic approach to Ji-Yoon’s life and the many obstacles she’ll encounter.

The Chair Synopsis

Here’s the official synopsis for The Chair.

The Chair follows Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) as she navigates her new role as the Chair of the English department at prestigious Pembroke University. Ji-Yoon is faced with a unique set of challenges as the first woman to chair the department, and as one of the few staff members of color at the university. The older staff fear change, while new blood, like professor Yasmin McKay (Nana Mensah), agitate for it. Ji-Yoon tries to juggle her new administrative responsibilities —clashing with close co-workers who were confidants before she became the boss— with motherhood to her young daughter Ju Ju (Everly Carginilla) and caretaking for her father Habi (Ji Yong Lee).

The Chair Cast

Sandra Oh stars as Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, the new chair of Pembroke University’s English department. Her fancy new gig should be cause for celebration, but instead, it’s made excessively complicated by the drama of her social life and the scandals threatening to wreck Pembroke’s reputation. We’ve seen Oh take on homicidal psychopaths in Killing Eve and a superpowered alien husband in Invincible, dealing with one measly college department should be easy…right?

Oh’s fellow professors will be played by Holland Taylor, Jay Duplass, Bob Balaban, and Nana Mensah. Ji Yong Lee will play her father Habi and Everly Carginilla stars as her young daughter, Ju Ju.

The Chair Director, Crew, and More

The Chair is the first writing credit from writer, executive producer, and showrunner Amanda Peet. Peet has been an actress for many years, most recently starring in popular shows like The Good Wife, Brockmire, and Dirty John. She’ll produce the show alongside her husband, David Benioff, his longtime Game of Thrones collaborator D.B. Weiss, and the series star, Sandra Oh.