Mimi Leder

Miriam Leder (; born January 26, 1952) is an American film and television director and producer; she is noted for her action films and use of special effects.Hurd, Mary G. Women Directors and Their Films. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. She has directed the films '' The Peacemaker'' (1997), '' Deep Impact'' (1998), ''Pay It Forward'' (2000), and ''On the Basis of Sex'' (2018). She was the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory, in 1973. She has been nominated for ten Emmy Awards, winning two.

Early life

Miriam Leder was born in New York City in 1952, the daughter of Etyl, a classical pianist, and Paul Leder, a director, producer, actor, writer, and editor of films including ''My Friends Need Killing, A*P*E,'' and '' I Dismember Mama.'' Leder grew up in Los Angeles in a Jewish household. Her mother is a Holocaust survivor (Auschwitz concentration camp) from Brussels, Belgium. During childhood, her father, a low-budget independent filmmaker, introduced Mimi and her siblings to film production. Her father often dropped her off at the cinema to watch the latest films. Leder said that one of the early films which had an impact on her was Federico Fellini's ''8½.'' She was the first woman accepted into the AFI Conservatory, where she studied cinematography.

Film career

Leder began her career as a second unit director on her father's 1976 film A*P*E, then as a script supervisor on a string of films, including ''Spawn of the Slithis'' (1978), ''Dummy'' (1979), ''The Boy Who Drank Too Much'' (1980), and ''A Long Way Home'' (1980) and then moved to the TV series '' Hill Street Blues'' (1981). After making the short film ''Short Order Dreams,'' written and funded by her father Paul,Gregory, Mollie. Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood. New York: St. Martin's, 2002. she screened it for Steven Bochco, creator of ''Hill Street Blues,'' and his friend Gregory Hoblit who hired her to direct an episode of ''L.A. Law.''

In 1988, Leder directed episodes of '' Crime Story,'' '' The Bronx Zoo,'' '' Midnight Caller,'' then directed several episodes of '' China Beach'' (1988–91) for which she was nominated for four Emmys. She made the made-for-TV films ''Woman with a Past'' (1992), ''House of Secrets'' (1993), and ''Baby Brokers'' (1994), then became one of the core directors for '' ER'' (1994–2009). The show earned her Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series in 1995 and 1996. She returned to direct an episode of the series during its final season in 2009. She soon received a job offer from Steven Spielberg to direct the film '' The Peacemaker'' (1997).

Continuing to work for DreamWorks, she directed '' Deep Impact'' (1998) and ''Pay It Forward'' (2000) while simultaneously creating ''Sentimental Journey'' (1999), a personal love story about her parents. When asked for a reaction about her film '' Deep Impact'' (1998) vs. a rival movie release at the same time ''Armageddon'' (1998), she responded: "Michael Bay did come to my premiere, which really shocked me. And I can tell you that after—after eeingmy film—he went and reshot the end of his." After making ''Pay It Forward'' Leder went through a period where she wasn't hired to direct any feature films. "Most women who don't have commercial success are not asked back to the party. It did not hurt me in television, but it did in features." Leder felt as though she had been put into a "movie jail" by Hollywood for the lack of success of ''Pay It Forward.''

Leder's dry spell of feature films after the release of ''Pay It Forward'' drove her to other pursuits in television and film. She shot nine pilots and produced six series, including ''The Beast'' (2001), ''John Doe'' (2002), '' Johnny Zero'' (2005), and '' Vanished'' (2006). Leder also made many made-for-TV movies such as '' Thick as Thieves'' (2009), ''U.S. Attorney'' (2009), and ''Heavenly'' (2011). In 2015, Leder was brought by HBO to direct a first-season episode of '' The Leftovers'' and later hired as a co-showrunner.

Leder's feature film ''On the Basis of Sex,'' the story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's path to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was released in December 2018. It was Leder's first theatrical feature in 18 years.

Personal life

Leder has a daughter, Hannah, with her husband actor Gary Werntz. Mimi Leder has said she "was raised a feminist" and "was an anti-war protester all during the Vietnam War."

Filmography

Film
* '' The Peacemaker'' (1997)
* '' Deep Impact'' (1998)
* ''Sentimental Journey'' (1999) (Short film)
* ''Pay It Forward'' (2000)
* '' Thick as Thieves'' (2009)
* ''On the Basis of Sex'' (2018)

Ref.:

TV movies

TV series

Awards and nominations

Notes

* Scott, Tobias. "Veteran TV Director Still Tries to Scale Film Barriers." ''New York Times'' (10/13/2015): C2. Accessed November 13, 2018
* Brodesser, Claude. "Helmer: Leder Among Men." ''Daily Variety'' (6/9/2000): A4. Accessed November 13, 2018
* Goldman, Michael. "Mimi Leger: Director." ''Millimeter'' (Nov 1998) Accessed November 13, 2018
* Rochlin, Margy. "For Mimi Leder, Persistence Pays Off." ''Directors Guild of America Quarterly'' (Spring 2018) Accessed November 14, 2018

References

External links

*
* The Paley Center for Media
She Made It , Mimi Leder

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leder, Mimi
1952 births
Living people
AFI Conservatory alumni
Film producers from New York (state)
20th-century American Jews
American television directors
Television producers from New York City
American women television producers
American women film directors
American women television directors
Jewish American film people
Film directors from New York City
American women film producers
Primetime Emmy Award winners
21st-century American Jews
20th-century American women
21st-century American women