Mimi Leder


Miriam Leder is an American film and television director and producer noted for her action films and use of special effects. She was the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory, in 1973.

Early life

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 such films as My Friends Need Killing, Attack of the Giant Horny Gorilla, and Dismember Mama. Leder was raised in Los Angeles in a Jewish home. Her mother is a Holocaust survivor from Brussels, Belgium, who was interned at Auschwitz. 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 states that one of the early films that 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 script supervisor on a string of films, including Spawn of the Slithis, Dummy, The Boy Who Drank Too Much, and A Long Way Home, and then moved to the TV series Hill Street Blues. After making the short film Short Order Dreams, written and funded by her father Paul, 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 for which she was nominated for four Emmys. She made the made-for-TV films Woman with a Past, House of Secrets, and Baby Brokers, then became one of the core directors for ER. 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.
Continuing to work for DreamWorks, she directed Deep Impact and Pay It Forward while simultaneously creating Sentimental Journey, a personal love story about her parents. Leder went through a period after making Pay It Forward where she wasn't hired to direct any feature films. Leder felt as though she had been put into a "movie jail" by Hollywood for the lack of success of Pay It Forward. Leder also attributed this reaction from the industry to her being a woman.
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, John Doe, Johnny Zero, and Vanished. Leder also made many made-for-TV movies such as Thick as Thieves, U.S. Attorney, and Heavenly. 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 is Leder's first theatrical feature in 18 years.

Personal life

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

Filmography

Feature films

Television

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNominated workResult
1990Emmy AwardOutstanding Drama SeriesChina Beach
1991American Film InstituteFranklin J. Schaffner Award
1991Emmy AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesChina Beach
1991Emmy AwardOutstanding Drama SeriesChina Beach
1992Emmy AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesChina Beach
1995Emmy AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesER
1995Emmy AwardOutstanding Drama SeriesER
1995Directors Guild of America AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesER
1996Directors Guild of America AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesER
1996Emmy AwardOutstanding Drama SeriesER
1996Emmy AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesER
1997Directors Guild of America AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesER
2000Women in Film Crystal + Lucy AwardsDorothy Arzner Award
2006Emmy AwardOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesThe West Wing
2020Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesThe Morning Show