Mimi Leder
Mimi Leder (born January 1, 1957) is an American film director. She was the first female graduate of the American Film Institute.
Born in 1957 to parents Paul Leder and Hannah Werntz, Leder began her career as a television script supervisor, working on such series as Spawn of the Slithis (1978) and Hill Street Blues (1981). Shortly after working on the television drama Under the Influence in 1986, Leder began directing L.A. Law.
Leder continued television work during the late 1980s and early 1990s, including work on the 1988 television movie Nightingales and the series China Beach, for which she was nominated for several Emmy awards. In 1994 she directed and co-produced nearly a dozen episodes of ER, which earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1995 and 1996.
Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, she directed several blockbuster dramatic films, including Deep Impact (1998), Pay It Forward (2000), and John Doe (2002). In 2004 she began work as director on the action/adventure film, Smoke & Mirrors.
Leder has one daughter with husband Gary Werntz.