Photo Credit: Veronica Maccari
Emily Lerer is a Directors Guild of Canada award nominated writer/director raised in the midwest by an empathetic special education teacher and charismatic rabbi. Her work explores the messiness of femininity and seeks to elevate under-represented characters through raw, gritty stories.
T-MINUS, her trans-abortion-road-trip film won audience awards at Oscar-qualifying Out on Film and Newfest. PUNCH DRUNK, her cervical cancer-centered dramedy premiered at Hollyshorts and enjoyed international acclaim at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival. Her screenplays have advanced in the Austin Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, and Final Draft Big Break Contest. She has made the Red List top 20 Thriller Scripts as #7 and WeScreenplay Competition top 5% of the 60,000 scripts submitted.
Connecting empathetically to actors comes naturally for Emily who spent years directing off-broadway theatre. Emily’s near decade working alongside such prominent show runners as John Wells and Lena Waithe has taught her the ins and outs of television from pre-production through post. Her television post production experience spans network, cable, and prime time for Warner Brothers, Showtime, Fox, A.B.C., H.B.O., B.E.T., Annapurna, Freeform and Netflix on shows including GREY’S ANATOMY, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS - ORIGINAL SIN and SHAMELESS.
A proud alumnus of the Sundance Directing Television Intensive, Alliance of Women Directors Directing the Directing the Actors Lab. As a champion for safer sets, she is earning her Intimacy Coordinators and Directors certification and is a member of Women in Film, Array Crew, The Television Academy and the Producers Guild of America. She strives to make her orange tabby cat Gloria Steinem proud.
