Leelai Demoz

Leelai Demoz
Leelai Demoz on set in Italy (2023)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, Producer, Theater Artist
Known forOn Tiptoe, Difret, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Broadway theatre, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences


Leelai Demoz is a producer and theater artist. He is an Academy Award–nominated producer whose work spans film, television, and theatre. [1][2]

He is the founding partner of Highwire Media, a film, television, and theatre production company based in Chicago. [3]

From 2019 to 2022, Demoz served as the Associate Artistic Director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago.[4]

Career

Demoz's documentary On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom (2000), about the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).[5] The film also received an Emmy Award nomination.[6]

Demoz was a producer of Difret (2014), executively produced by Angelina Jolie. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award.[7] Difret also won the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.[8]

He is a former recipient of an SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant.[9]

At Steppenwolf Theatre, Demoz helped develop Steppenwolf NOW, the company's digital programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10][11]

Demoz is a public speaker and panelist. He has participated in programs such as "Black History 24/7/365" at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre,[12] and events at UCLA's African Studies Center.[13]

Earlier in his career, Demoz served as the Executive Director of the Schoolhouse Foundation in New York.[14]

Selected filmography

Personal life

Demoz is married to Kelly Demoz (née Kelly Marie Moriarty).[15]

References

  1. ^ "73rd Academy Awards". Oscars.org. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  2. ^ "Academy Awards, USA 2001". IMDb. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  3. ^ "Animals: a new play by Matthew-Lee Erlbach, produced by Highwire Media". Chicago Sun-Times.
  4. ^ "Rising in a pandemic: Steppenwolf's new $54 million theater campus". Chicago Tribune.
  5. ^ "Academy Award Nominees 2001". International Documentary Association.
  6. ^ "Public Lives; Suddenly on the Radar in Hollywood's Stratosphere". The New York Times.
  7. ^ "'Difret' Wins World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance Festival". Tadias.
  8. ^ "'Difret', 'Circle' win Berlin audience awards". Screen Daily.
  9. ^ "Meet the Latest SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant Finalists". Filmmaker Magazine.
  10. ^ "A Digital Stage the Steppenwolf Way: Catching Up with Leelai Demoz". BroadwayWorld.
  11. ^ "Steppenwolf NOW: What Is Left, Burns". Steppenwolf Theatre.
  12. ^ "How to celebrate Black History Month in Evanston". Evanston Roundtable.
  13. ^ "Leelai Demoz at UCLA African Studies Center". UCLA African Studies Center.
  14. ^ "Budget Dispute Stalls a Plan to Build New Schools". The New York Times.
  15. ^ "Kelly Marie Moriarty and Leelai Demoz". The New York Times.
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