Ron Leshem

Ron Leshem (Hebrew: רון לשם) is an Israeli screenwriter, producer, and author. He is an executive producer of Euphoria, which was based on the Israeli television series he co-created and co-wrote in 2012. His first film as a screenwriter, Beaufort, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and based on his novel of the same name that received the Sapir Prize in 2006.^[2]

Leshem has worked on television series including No Man's Land, Valley of Tears, and The Gordin Cell, and the film Incitement.

By age 15, Leshem was working in the television industry on educational and youth programming as a researcher and editing coordinator. He helped to develop Zombit, a computer program that became a television show about technology and the internet. Leshem was also a journalist for Ma'ariv La'noar at this time.^[3]

He worked as a news editor at Yediot Ahronot in 1998 and became the head of the reporters' department two years later. During those years, he also worked as a magazine writer publishing investigative reports about Israel's prison system and animal testing, conducting interviews with Palestinian figures and politicians as well as what was going on within Palestinian territories.^[4]

Leshem was appointed deputy editor-in-chief and head of the news division at Maariv in 2001. He also founded the newspaper's website.^[3][5]

Leshem transitioned from print media to television in 2005.^[6] From 2006 to 2009, he worked in content development for Keshet Broadcasting, where he became chief of content and programming at the network. Leshem managed both its reality/entertainment/documentary and drama divisions. Israeli television series he was involved with include Arab Labor, the A-word, Beauty and the Baker, False Flag and Prisoners of War, which was later adapted into the American series Homeland.^[7]

In 2011, Leshem co-created and co-wrote his first original drama series, The Gordin Cell, which was about a Russian spy family pressured by their Moscow handlers to recruit their young son.^[8] It received multiple nominations at the Awards of the Israeli Television Academy.^[9] The series was sold for adaptation to NBC, first by Peter Berg and later by George Nolfi. Allegiance aired on NBC in 2015 and was canceled after one season.^[7]

He co-created the original Euphoria in 2012 along with director Daphna Levin.^[8] It was motivated by Leshem wanting to create a more realistic show about teenagers and described as "Trainspotting meets Gus Van Sant".^[10] Over the following years, Leshem pitched an adaptation of the series to American networks and studios. HBO ordered an American adaption in 2018 where Leshem was an executive producer alongside being credited as a writer for the pilot episode.^[8][11][12]

In early 2013, Leshem moved from Israel to the United States, joining Legendary Entertainment as a development producer.^[4] He is based in Boston and has an office in Los Angeles.^[13]

Leshem co-created, co-wrote and produced the French series No Man's Land, which followed female Kurdish fighters as well as three British friends who travel to join ISIS during the Syrian civil war. The series was released on Hulu.^[8] He also co-created, co-wrote and produced the Max series Valley of Tears, a mini-series about the Yom Kippur War, which was released in Israel before being picked up by HBO in 2020.^[14]

In 2019, Leshem and Amit Cohen signed a development deal with Red Arrow Studios International to create scripted dramas.^[15][16]

Leshem has also co-written the Hulu series Fertile Crescent, which focuses on the Syrian Civil War.^[8]

In 2023, Bad Boy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).^[17] The drama series was co-created, co-written and produced by Leshem and set in a juvenile detention facility following a boy that is imprisoned who later becomes a comedian.^[18] It received seven Israeli Television Academy Awards following its release in Israel in 2024.^[19] Netflix acquired the global streaming rights after the TIFF premiere and set a release date of May 2025.^[20]

As a novelist, Leshem's debut novel Beaufort^[21][22] was published in Hebrew in 2006.^[22][23] Written in the form of a diary of an Israeli army officer, the book was on Israel’s bestseller list for two years and translated into multiple languages.^[24][25][26] He co-wrote a film adaptation of the novel with director Joseph Cedar the next year.^[25][8] The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film^[27] and won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival.^[28]

Leshem’s second book, The Underground Bazaar, was also a bestseller.^[26]

His 2019 novel, When We Were Beautiful (Hebrew: יפים כמו שהיינו), is being translated into English by Jessica Cohen.^[29]

In September 2013, he married his husband, Oren Ganor, a pediatric surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School specializing in organ reconstruction, in Boston. The two met as young men while serving in the IDF in Unit 8200, in 1999. In 2022, the couple had a daughter.

• Arab Labor (2007–2011)
• Ramzor (Traffic light) (2008–2013)
• Prisoners of War (2010–2012)
• The A-Word (2010–2014)
• Polishuk (2010)

• Ron Leshem bio note at Random House, Inc.
• ‘Euphoria’ Creator Ron Leshem on Israel-Hamas Conflict: "The World Must Prevent Further Escalation" (Guest Column)