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 [seeing] my 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)."Mimi Leder: Television Director, Producer." The Paley Center for Media: She Made It. Curator Ron Simon. The Paley Center for Media. Web. May 5, 2012. 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 Year Title Notes 1988 Nightingales Pilot for the 1989 TV series 1990 Sisters Pilot for the 1991 TV series 1991 A Little Piece of Heaven 1992 Woman with a Past 1993 Marked for Murder There Was a Little Boy Rio Shannon House of Secrets 1994 Baby Brokers The Innocent 2009 U.S. Attorney Also executive producer 2010 The Quinn-tuplets 2011 Heavenly

TV series Year Title Director Producer Notes 1987 L.A. Law Episodes "Fifty Ways to Floss Your Lover" and "Oy Vey! Wilderness!" 1988 A Year in the Life Episode "The Little Disturbance of Man" and "Glory Days" Crime Story Episode "The Hearings" The Bronx Zoo Episode "On the Land, on the Sea and in the Halls" Midnight Caller Episode "After It Happened" 1988–1991 China Beach Director (13 episodes)Producer (22 episodes)Supervising producer (16 episodes) 2001 The Beast Episode "The Price" 2002–2003 John Doe Directed 5 episodes 2005 Jonny Zero Directed 4 episodes 2006 The West Wing Episode "Election Day Part I" Related Vanished Directed 4 episodes 1994–2009 ER Director (11 episodes)Supervising producer (14 episodes)Co-executive producer (11 episodes) 2010 Human Target "The Wife's Tale" 2011–2012 Shameless 6 episodes 2012 Smash Episodes "The Workshop" and "The Dress Rehearsal" Luck "Episode Nine" 2014–2017 The Leftovers Directed 10 episodes 2019–present The Morning Show Directed 11 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominated work ResultNotes1990Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Drama SeriesChina Beach1991American Film InstituteFranklin J. Schaffner AwardPrimetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesChina BeachOutstanding Drama Series1992Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series1995EROutstanding Drama SeriesDirectors Guild of America AwardsOutstanding Directing for a Drama Series1996Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Drama SeriesOutstanding Directing for a Drama Series1997Directors Guild of America Awards2000Women in Film Crystal + Lucy AwardsDorothy Arzner Award2006Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesThe West Wing2020The Morning Show 2024Outstanding Drama SeriesOutstanding Directing for a Drama Series

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