Biografia
Jerry Leider has enjoyed a lifelong career in the entertainment industry as a motion picture and television producer, as well as a senior executive at major film studios, networks, and talent agencies.
Currently, Mr. Leider is developing a slate of high-profile motion pictures slated for production over the next eighteen months. Notable projects include Robert Harris' internationally bestselling novel "Fatherland," along with "Anne, Frank, and Me," "Girl Stolen," "The October Gang," "Dead for a Dollar," and "Billy."
He most recently served as Executive Producer alongside Francis Ford Coppola on Jack Kerouac's "On The Road," directed by Walter Salles, featuring an all-star cast including Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, and Viggo Mortensen.
Over the past decade, he has produced seven feature films, including the high-school comedy "Just Peck," starring Keir Gilchrist and Brie Larson; three family films for Disney: "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" starring Lindsay Lohan; "Cadet Kelly" starring Hilary Duff; and "My Favorite Martian" starring Jeff Daniels, Elizabeth Hurley, and Christopher Lloyd. His long-form television credits include the acclaimed romantic comedy "Coast to Coast" for Showtime, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Judy Davis, and the CBS-TV action thriller "Mayday," based on Nelson DeMille's bestselling novel.
During the last thirty years, Mr. Leider has produced, executive produced, or overseen the production of more than twenty feature films, including "The Jazz Singer," starring Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier; the Academy Award-nominated "Sophie's Choice," featuring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline; and the thriller cult classic horror film "The Stepfather."
He spent six years as Chairman and CEO of ITC Entertainment Group, an international television and film production and distribution company with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Perth, Australia. During his tenure, over thirty television and cable movies and miniseries aired on all three major broadcast networks, HBO, and Showtime. Highlights include "Poor Little Rich Girl" starring Farrah Fawcett; "Malice in Wonderland" featuring 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."
Additionally, he independently produced several network television movies, including three romance adaptations of LaVyrle Spencer novels for CBS, Alistair Maclean's international thriller "The Hostage Tower" (also for CBS), and Stephen King's horror novella "Trucks" for the USA Network.
Mr. Leider served as President of Warner Bros. Television in Los Angeles during the late 1960s, after relocating from New York, where he had been a senior partner at the Ashley Famous Agency (now ICM Partners) for seven years, overseeing worldwide television packaging. Prior to that, he was a senior program executive at CBS Television Network in New York. During his five years at Warner Bros. Television, he oversaw numerous successful and profitable series including "The FBI," "Kung Fu," "Wonder Woman," and "Alice."
Transitioning to feature films, he became Executive Vice President of Foreign Feature Production based in Rome, Italy, supervising the financing and production of fifteen Warner Bros. international films, including "Madam Rosa," starring the late Simone Signoret, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Before joining CBS Television, Mr. Leider produced plays in both New York and London. His Broadway successes include Sir John Gielgud's acclaimed one-man show "The Ages of Man" and "The Visit" starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. In London, he produced Tennessee Williams' celebrated drama "Suddenly Last Summer," starring Patricia Neal.
He is a longtime member of both the Motion Picture and Television Academies, has served three terms as Chairman of the Hollywood Caucus of Producers, Writers, and Directors, and is a past president of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society.
A frequent guest lecturer for film and television programs at USC, UCLA, and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University (his alma mater), he was also awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in Drama at Bristol University in England.
