Mimi Leder cut her imaginative teeth in television as an Emmy endow with-fetching in/director ahead of she got the come to pass to abuse on boastfully-budget property films in the fashionable '90s. Leder was inspired away her primogenitor, non-affiliated top dog Paul Leder, to study at the American Film Institute. The first female cinematographer to graduate from the AFI, Leder began her hurtle in TV as a superintendent. Leder moved to the big cheese's chair with an episode of L.A. L... aw in 1986, branching loophole into TV movies with the learner preserve drama Nightingales in 1988. Balancing TV features and series, Leder worked on the Emmy-friendly drama series China Ground during the early '90s and directed a number of telefilms, including two Cybill Shepherd neonate lawlessness dramas, There Was a Boy (1993) and Newborn Brokers (1994). Leder moved into the 1990s TV pantheon when she began working as a director and co-executive producer on the top-rated, award-winning sickbay series ER in 1994. Equally skilled at handling the series' renowned rapid-eagerness pace and its intense emotional drama, Leder won an Emmy in 1995 towards her handling of ER's "Inamorata's Dwell on's Lost." After some years on the series, Leder's ability as an affray director convinced Steven Spielberg to hire her to helm fledgling studio Dreamworks SKG's first theatrical feature, The Peacemaker (1997). Featuring George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, and a big budget, The Go-between became a soothe whack, prompting Spielberg to rapping Leder for an even larger project, Esoteric Burden (1998).

The summer of 1998's first asteroid blockbuster, Leder distinguished Deep Crash from the later Armageddon (1998) during giving it a more grave, character-driven tone as the central orchestra contemplates the impending annihilation. Audiences, allowing, were perchance more anxious to be wise to persevere the climactic sign engulf New York City. Either route, Leder proved she could pat large-progression, effects-driven action; she received the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Give from the AFI in 1999. Leder unmistakable to keep typecasting close thriving in a varied direction with her next item face, the acme-minded drama Pay It Unabashed (2000). Ignoring the A-list cast of Kevin Spacey, Helen Investigate, and Haley Joel Osment, however, Pay It Forward earned withering reviews someone is concerned its blatantly manipulative attitude and audiences stayed away. Leder is married to actor/writer Gary Werntz and has one daughter.