Biosurfactant (BS) production by Bacillus vallismortis RMS25 is investigated using keratin rich wastes as medium components. Biosurfactant production was observed to be higher under submerged fermentation conditions (1.12 g/L) when chicken feathers were used as medium ingredient. Plackett–Burman statistical design (PBD) and response surface methodology (RSM) are used to screen different keratinous materials and to optimize BS production. With a correlation coefficient (R2 ) of 97%, a maximum BS production of 1124 mgL-1 (3-fold increase) was validated under optimized conditions (chicken feather 4 %, glucose 4 %, inoculum size 2 %, and 48-hour incubation period). The findings point to an environmentally friendly method for biodegrading chicken feather waste and the use of currently studied substrate minimizes the production cost significantly.