He has said that he had an intense music teacher in the Princeton High School Studio Band, who was the inspiration for the character of Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons) in Chazelle's breakout film Whiplash.

Unlike the film's protagonist Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), Chazelle stated that he knew instinctively that he never had the talent to be a great drummer and after high school, pursued filmmaking again.

[16] Chazelle wrote and directed his debut feature, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, as part of his senior thesis project with classmate Justin Hurwitz at Harvard.

[23] Whiplash received numerous awards on the festival circuit[24][25] and earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Chazelle, winning three.

With a screenplay by Josh Singer, the biopic is based on author James R. Hansen's First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, written about the astronaut.

The film received positive reviews,[33] with Owen Gleiberman of Variety writing that "Chazelle orchestrates a dashingly original mood of adventure drenched in anxiety".

[36] Featuring 64 films, his selection[37] includes works by Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut, Barry Lyndon), and Richard Linklater (Before Sunset).

[40] In July 2019, Variety reported that his next film, called Babylon, set in 1920s Hollywood, was scheduled to be released in 2021, co-produced by his wife, Olivia Hamilton.

[45] Manhola Dargis of The New York Times wrote, "Throughout this disappointing movie, what's missing is the one thing that defined the silent era at its greatest and to which Chazelle remains bafflingly oblivious: its art.

"[46] At the same time, Wall Street Journal film critic Kyle Smith called the movie "one of the year's most ambitious and impressive works.

[48] In April 2024, it was reported that Chazelle would produce his next film, set for release in 2025, alongside his wife Hamilton under their Wild Chickens Productions banner.

[53][54] In October 2017, Chazelle and actress Olivia Hamilton, a Princeton University graduate and former McKinsey & Company consultant, announced their engagement,[54][55] and they married September 22, 2018.