Leah Meyerhoff is an award winning independent filmmaker who wrote and directed the narrative feature film I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS starring Natalia Dyer and Peter Vack, which was released theatrically after premiering at SXSW, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival and additional awards from Tribeca Film Institute, San Francisco Film Society, Woodstock Film Festival, and the Adrienne Shelly Foundation.
A New York Times Critics’ Pick, I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS was described by Variety as “a sensitively observed and arrestingly impressionistic drama that feels at once deeply personal and easily accessible” and the LA Times called it “an honest, complicated portrayal of adolescent female sexuality on film” The Village Voice proclaimed “the performances are strong, the imaginary visions are suggestive, and the film as a whole is swoon, tender, skittish, a little scary - in short, this is what young love feels like. More Meyerhoff please!”
Leah's previous short film TWITCH won a Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance and was shortlisted for the Student Academy Awards. After screening in over one hundred film festivals worldwide, TWITCH was broadcast by IFC and PBS. She also works as a music video director, including TEAM QUEEN for Triple Creme, ETERNAL FLAME for Joan as Police Woman and LIKE OUR FATHERS for Luff, which have aired on LOGO and MTV.
Leah was one of eight filmmakers selected for IFP’s Emerging Narrative Labs, winning the Panasonic Emerging Filmmaker Award. She was one of ten chosen for the Emerging Visions program at the New York Film Festival and one of eight selected for the All Access Labs during the Tribeca Film Festival. Leah also participated in the IFP Narrative Labs where she received the Adrienne Shelly Directors Award and was nominated for a Gotham Award.
Leah’s feature film producing credits include the lesbian thriller LYLE, directed by Stewart Thorndike and starring Gabby Hoffman (OutFest 2014), the feature documentary I AM NO BIRD directed by Em Baker (Melbourne Film Festival 2019), the narrative drama BEFORE THE FIRE directed by Charlier Buhler, and the Annapurna Pictures thriller MOMSTER directed by Drew Denny (Tribeca Film Festival 2019).
As a professor, she has lectured at Tisch School of the Arts, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Studio Arts College International and New York Film Academy. She has worked as a programmer and juror for numerous film festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Dallas International Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Rooftop Film Festival, and Woodstock Film Festival.
Leah Meyerhoff is the founder of FILM FATALES, a non-profit organization which advocates for parity in the film industry and supports hundreds of feature film and television directors of all marginalized genders. Over the past five years, they have produced over one hundred panel discussions, educational workshops and networking events for marginalized filmmakers in collaboration with organizations such as Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Hot Docs, and Toronto International Film Festival.
Leah holds a BA in Art-Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she was a recipient of the Dean's Fellowship. She is repped by ICM Partners.