Distinguished Alumnus Lesli Linka Glatter named as DGA President

Distinguished Alumna Lesli Linka Glatter '71 is the new president of the Directors Guild of America after being elected at the union’s national convention in Los Angeles. The DGA currently represents more than 18,000 members. 

 

Glatter is an award-winning veteran director of film, network, and premium cable television drama, with both pilots and episodes to her credit. Lesli’s TV work includes The Morning Show, Homeland, The Newsroom, The Walking Dead, Justified, Ray Donovan, Masters of Sex, True Blood, Mad Men, The Leftovers, The Good Wife, The West Wing, NYPD Blue, ER, Freaks and Geeks and Twin Peaks. She has also directed numerous pilots including Gilmore Girls, Pretty Little Liars and SIX. Her films include Now and Then, The Proposition and for HBO, State of Emergency. She recently signed a first-look deal with Universal and is directing and executive-producing the upcoming HBO Max limited series “Love and Death,” starring Elizabeth Olsen. She is currently attached to direct the feature adaptation of Ashley’s War for Universal Pictures. 

 

“I am honored to have been chosen by my peers to serve as president and am committed to continuing our Guild’s great legacy of protecting the economic and creative rights of our members, always with our eye on the future,” Glatter said in a statement. “In these times of great technological and cultural change, we stand ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead. And just as we have throughout our 85-year history, together we will prevail.”

 

Glatter, a member of the Guild’s national board since 2003, joined the DGA in 1985 and has served twice in vice-president roles. She began her directing career through the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, in which her film Tales of Meeting and Parting was nominated for an Oscar. She has been nominated for eight Directors Guild of America Awards, most recently winning her third DGA Award for directing the Homeland series finale, having won twice before for Mad Men and Homeland. Lesli has received eight Emmy nominations and a Humanitas Award nomination for HBO’s State of Emergency.

Lesli was honored with the Greenhill Distinguished Alumnus award in 1986.