Jerry Leider

Jerry Leider enjoys a life-long career in the entertainment industry as a motion picture and television producer, and major film studio, network and talent agency senior executive. Currently Mr, Leider is developing a full slate of high-profile motion pictures planned for production within the next eighteen months, most notably Robert Harris' internationally best-selling novel "Fatherland," as well as "Anne, Frank, and Me," "Girl Stolen," "The October Gang," "Dead for a Dollar" and "Billy." He most recently Executive Produced, with Francis Ford Copolla, Jack Kerouac's "On The Road," directed by Walter Salles and an all-star cast, including Garret Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams and Viggo Mortensen. In the last ten years he produced seven features including the high-school comedy "Just Peck" starring Keir Gilchrist and Brie Larson; three family movies for Disney: "Confessions of a Teen Age Drama Queen" starring Lindsay Lohan; "Cadet Kelly" starring Hilary Duff; and "My Favorite Martian" starring Jeff Daniels, Elizabeth Hurley and Christopher Lloyd. Long-form television includes, for Showtime, the highly acclaimed romantic comedy "Coast to Coast", that starred Richard Dreyfuss and Judy Davis; and, for CBS-TV, "Mayday," an action thriller based on Nelson DeMille's hit novel. In the past three decades, Mr. Leider has personally produced, executive produced, or supervised the production of more than twenty feature films including "The Jazz Singer" starring Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier; the Academy Award nominee "Sophie's Choice" starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline; and the thriller, cult-classic horror film "The Stepfather." For six years he was Chairman and CEO of the ITC Entertainment Group, an international television and film producer and distribution company with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London and Perth, Australia. More than thirty television and cable movies and mini-series were produced and aired during that time on all three broadcast networks, HBO, and Showtime including "Poor Little Rich Girl" starring Farrah Fawcett; "Malice in Wonderland" starring Elizabeth Taylor; "Unnatural Causes," a Golden Globe Award winner starring John Ritter; "Sidney Sheldon's Windmills of the Gods"; and the award winning "Billionaire Boys Club." He also independently produced a number of network television movies including three romance novels by La Vyrle Spencer for CBS, as well as Alistair Maclean's international thriller, "The Hostage Tower" (also for CBS) and Stephen King's horror novella, "Trucks" for the USA Network Mr. Leider was President of Warner Bros. Television in Los Angeles in the late sixties, after moving from New York, where he had been, a senior partner for seven years at the Ashley Famous Agency (now ICM Partners) in charge of worldwide television packaging and previously senior program executive at the CBS Television Network in New York. For five years at Warner's TV, he presided over numerous popular and profitable television series including such hits as "The FBI," "Kung Fu," "Wonder Woman," and "Alice." Making the shift to features he took on the position of Executive Vice President of Foreign Feature Production, based in Rome, Italy, where he supervised the financing and production of fifteen Warner Bros. international motion pictures including "Madam Rosa" starring the late Simone Signoret, which received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Before joining CBS-TV, Mr. Leider produced plays in New York and London. Among his Broadway successes were Sir John Gielgud's outstanding one-man show "The Ages of Man" and "The Visit" starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine. In London, he produced the acclaimed Tennessee Williams' drama "Suddenly Last Summer" that starred Patricia Neal. He is a long time member of both the Motion Picture and Television Academies, a three-term Chairman of the Hollywood Caucus of Producers, Writers, and Directors, and past president of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. A frequent guest lecturer for the Film and Television programs at USC, UCLA, and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University (his alma mater), he was also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Drama at Bristol University, England.