Mimi Leder is an American film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

. She was the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory

AFI Conservatory

The AFI Conservatory is a division of the American Film Institute founded in 1969, located in Hollywood's Griffith Park. The school is the only existing Master of Fine Arts conservatory in advanced film education...

 in 1973.

Movie career

Leder began her career as a television script supervisor, working on such projects as Spawn of the Slithis (1978) and Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...

(1981). Shortly after working on the television drama Under the Influence in 1986, Leder began directing L.A. Law

L.A. Law

L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...

.

Leder continued television work during the late 1980s and early 1990s, including work on the 1988 television movie Nightingales

Nightingales

Nightingales is a British situation comedy set around the antics of three security guards working the night shift. It was produced by Alomo Productions for Channel 4 in 1990.-Outline:...

and the series China Beach

China Beach

China Beach is an American dramatic television series set at an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War. The title refers to My Khe beach in the city of Da Nang, Vietnam, which was nicknamed "China Beach" by unknown foreigners, most likely Americans...

, for which she was nominated for several Emmy awards. In 1994, she directed and co-produced nearly a dozen episodes of ER

ER (TV series)

ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

, which 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.

Throughout the late 1990s and the 2000s, Leder has directed several dramatic films including The Peacemaker, Deep Impact

Deep Impact (film)

Deep Impact is a 1998 science-fiction disaster-drama film released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in the United States on May 8, 1998. The film was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Téa Leoni, and Morgan Freeman...

, Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward is a 2000 American drama film based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It was directed by Mimi Leder and written by Leslie Dixon...

, and Thick as Thieves. In 2005, she began work as director on the action/comedy series Jonny Zero

Jonny Zero

Jonny Zero is an action-crime drama television series that aired on the Fox network in 2005. It starred Franky G, GQ, and Brennan Hesser. It was cancelled after eight episodes. It began airing on Monday nights on ABC TV in Australia in early 2007.-Plot:...

, which ran for twelve episodes.

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