SummaryMicrophthalmia‐associated transcription factor (MITF) is a survival factor in melanocytes and melanoma cells. MITF regulates expression of antiapoptotic genes and promotes lineage‐specific survival in response to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and to chemotherapeutics. SWI/SNF chromatin‐remodeling enzymes interact with MITF to regulate MITF target gene expression. We determined that the catalytic subunit, BRG1, of the SWI/SNF complex protects melanoma cells against UV‐induced death. BRG1 prevents apoptosis in UV‐irradiated melanoma cells by activating expression of the melanoma inhibitor of apoptosis (ML‐IAP). Down‐regulation of ML‐IAP compromises BRG1‐mediated survival of melanoma cells in response to UV radiation. BRG1 regulates ML‐IAP expression by cooperating with MITF to promote transcriptionally permissive chromatin structure on the ML‐IAP promoter. The alternative catalytic subunit, BRM, and the BRG1‐associated factor, BAF180, were found to be dispensable for elevated expression of ML‐IAP in melanoma cells. Thus, we illuminate a lineage‐specific mechanism by which a specific SWI/SNF subunit, BRG1, modulates the cellular response to DNA damage by regulating an antiapoptotic gene and implicate this subunit of the SWI/SNF complex in mediating the prosurvival function of MITF.