Introduction
Award-winning filmmaker known for directing, producing, and editing critically lauded documentary features and shorts such as the Academy Award®-nominated short documentary film Recycled Life and the Primetime Emmy®-nominated The Pixar Story.
Leslie Iwerks is an award-winning filmmaker known for directing, producing, and editing critically lauded documentary features and shorts such as the Academy Award®-nominated short documentary film Recycled Life and the Primetime Emmy®-nominated The Pixar Story. She is also the CEO and Founder of Iwerks & Co., the 20 year-old award winning multimedia production company, which serves as home to a diverse body of creatives known for bringing complex stories to life onscreen with exceptional storytelling skill.
For two decades, Leslie’s work has traveled her to all seven continents, from the depths of the Guatemala City garbage dumps, to the toxic tar sands of Canada, to a labyrinth-like town in Macedonia, to the outer reaches of Antarctica. Known for her critically acclaimed environmental, political, and human rights short documentaries, she was recognized with an Oscar® nomination for Recycled Life in 2006 and Downstream earned a place on the Oscar shortlist in 2009. These films, along with her other shorts–Dirty Oil, Selling Lies, and Pipe Dreams—all garnered positive critical notice and generated meaningful philanthropic and social action.
Leslie’s celebrated body of work also encompasses documentaries focused on creative titans across various industries such as entertainment (The Pixar Story, The Imagineering Story, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, The Hand Behind the Mouse), gaming (League of Legends Origins), the culinary world (Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table), and media (Citizen Hearst). By exposing the genius, risks, and foibles of some of the most renowned visionaries in history, her balanced onscreen portraits are widely considered the definitive record of these legends and praised by fans and critics alike.
Leslie is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) Documentary Branch, the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Television Academy, and the International Documentary Association (IDA). She currently serves on the board of the AMPAS Scientific and Technical Committee, as well as the USC School of Cinema Television Alumni Council. A California native, Leslie and her family are based in Los Angeles.
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