Leonard Zelig

Leonard Zelig is an award-winning film and theater director with more than 20 years of experience in the industry.

Awards include - The "Best Camera Award" at the Festival de Cine de Merida for his film subHysteria (2010); the prestigious Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors Award as Best Director for the play "An Empty Shoebox", where he shared the stage with Alfonso Cuaron and Alfred Molina (2004) and the International ACE Award for Best Foreign Production with the play "Happy with my mojo" (2005).

Leonard started acting in 1989, when he was 16 years old, 7 years later he would direct his first play "Sand's Fragments".

He moved from Caracas, Venezuela to NYC in 2002. Between 2002 and 2004, he directed "Deranged Chronicles", "An empty shoebox", "Celebrities shouldn't have children", "It's a matter of timing" and "Palpare". In 2004 he decided to focus on his rising film career in the United States. He was involved in the production of the short films, "Thou Shalt not Dream", "December Plans", "Permanence"; wrote "Como se mata uno" and wrote and directed the guerrilla short films "Blind Date", "The Manare Welder Project" and "434". His first documentary feature "Metralleta" was picked up for theatrical distribution in Venezuela for Amazonia Films and earned the Best Music Award in the "Festival de Cine de Merida" in 2007. Leonard returned to theater after a 6 year hiatus on June 2010, with the play "Central Park West" from Woody Allen, which was sold out in Caracas for 24 weeks. In November 2010 he directed the play "Casting Express" by Marcos Purroy for the Lee Strasberg Film and Theater Institute.

Right now he's distributing his opera prima "subHysteria" already released theatrically in Venezuela and Colombia, he's also post-producing the thriller "Bloodbath Test", developing the comedy "Oops" and writing a stage adaptation of the film "Scenes of a sexual nature", to be produced in 2013, among several others project in development.

Leonard's a graduate from the distinguished "Escuela De Cine y TV" in Venezuela. He also attended the New York Film Academy, the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and the New School in NYC.

Works as a Creative Community Manager at the Indian Country Today