Born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1962, Chalmer studied at the National Ballet School of Canada with Betty Oliphant, Daniel Seillier, Erik Bruhn and Sergiu Stefansci. He danced the role of Albrecht in Giselle at his graduation performance and joined the National Ballet of Canada.

His admiration for the ballets of choreographer John Cranko were the motivation to leave Canada and join the Stuttgart Ballet in 1980. He became a soloist there in 1983 and danced many leading roles in the company’s repertoire. In 1985 he joined Les Ballets de Monte Carlo as Danseur Étoile and partner of ballerina Ghislaine Thesmar. Chalmer has danced as a Guest Artist with The English National Ballet, The Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Scottish Ballet, The London City Ballet, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma and at Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

He has danced important leading classical roles such as Romeo in Romeo and Julie (Cranko, Stevenson, Lifar), Siegfried in Swan Lake (Cranko, Makarova), Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty (Hynd), James in La Sylphide (Schaufuss), Albrecht in Giselle (Lacotte, Wright, Samsova, Skeaping), Lenski, Gremin and the title role in Cranko’s Onegin as well as Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew (Cranko) and the Prince in The Nutcracker (Schaufuss, Stevenson, Darrell). His repertoire also includes works by George Balanchine, Jiří Kylián, Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, William Forsythe and Uwe Scholz. He partnered Ghislaine Thesmar at the Premiere of Uwe Scholz’ Jeunehomme in Monte Carlo. He has also had the privilege to partner ballerinas such as Carla Fracci, Marcia Haydée, Birgit Keil, Natalia Makarova, Ekaterina Maximova, Eva Evdokimova, Lynn Seymour, Susan Jaffe, and Evelyne Desutter., a.o.

In 1999, Chalmer became Ballet Master of the Sächsische Staatsoper Ballett (Semperoper) Dresden and was invited by Uwe Scholz in 2000 to become Ballet Master at the Leipzig Ballet.

Chalmer has also made a name as choreographer. For the Balletto dell´Arena di Verona he created the ballet La Fille du Danube (1996), La Gitana (1996) and Il Talismano (1997) for which he was honoured with the Léonide Massine Award in Positano. For the Rome Opera Ballet he choreographed Lungo Viaggio for Vladimir Vassiliev (2000), The Sleeping Beauty (2002,2005,2007,2009) and revived his La Gitana (2005,2007,2009) which are still successful parts of the repertoire in Rome. In June 2006 he created La Vestale and in July 2007 A Midsummer’s Night Dream for the Rome Opera Ballet’s summer seasons at the Terme di Caracalla. In 2009 he choreographed the Pas de Deux Piaf à Deux for the Madrid Dance Festival and Romeo and Juliet with Paris Opera Etoiles Nicolas Le Riche and Clairemarie Osta for the St. Prex-Festival in Switzerland.

From 2005 to 2010, Paul Chalmer directed the ballet of the Leipzig Opera. For the Leipzig Ballet he created productions of Swan Lake (2005), The Nutcracker (2007), The Firebird (2008), Giselle (2009) and Petrouschka (2009). While honouring the legacy of Uwe Scholz and preserving many of his ballets, he also brought to the repertoire of the Leipzig Ballet works by Balanchine, Cranko, MacMillan, Robbins, Tetley, Mauro Bigonzetti, Marco Goecke and Christian Spuck. Under Chalmer’s direction the Company toured extensively to venues including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Mai-Festspiele in Wiesbaden, the Bodenseefestival in Friedrichshafen, the Festival Madrid en Danza, Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg, Warsaw, Santander, Pamplona, San Sebastian, Gran Canaria, Mallorca, etc.

In 2010, Chalmer choreographed a new full-length ballet for the Rome Opera to mark the bi-centennial of the birth of Frederic Chopin. Chopin Racconta Chopin premiered at the Teatro Nazionale in Rome, March 26, 2010. In 2011, Chalmer was a member of the Jury for the Prix de Lausanne and choreographed a new production of Swan Lake for MaggioDanza which premiered in Florence for the Festival of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In November, 2013 the National Conservatory of Paris' Junior Ballet staged Chalmer's Romeo and Juliet. In May/June 2014 the Rome Opera Ballet will dance Chalmer’s production of The Sleeping Beauty.