Adam Leipzig, like everyone on the MediaU team, has a dual career commitment to both media-making and education.
Adam Leipzig’s work focuses on quality and profitable international media built on strong business fundamentals; establishing supportive opportunities for content creators; and sharing skills and knowledge to expand access and careers for upcoming generations. For this purpose, he founded MediaU and is its CEO.
As senior executive at Walt Disney Studios, president of National Geographic Films, and working independently, Adam has been a producer, distributor, or supervising executive on 36 films that have disrupted expectations, including March of the Penguins, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dead Poets Society, Titus and The Way Back. A Plastic Ocean, one of his recent documentaries, has inspired more than 150 new laws around the world; and he is currently producing the “accidental romance” film Sicilian Holiday, to be released in 2024.
Adam’s movies have won or been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, 11 BAFTA Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 2 Emmys, 2 Directors Guild Awards, 4 Sundance Awards and 4 Independent Spirit Awards. Collectively, his projects have generated over $2 billion in revenue on $300 million production spending, and twice he has been responsible for the “most profitable picture of the year.”
Adam has worked with more than 10,000 creative artists in film, theatre, television, music, dance, poetry, literature, performance, photography, and design. He has a history of working with artists as they explore new realms of their creativity – including producing or supervising the first films directed by Jon Turteltaub, Julie Taymor, Joe Johnston, Cherien Dabis, Mary Agnes Donoghue, Michela Scolari, and the first plays directed by Robert Altman. He has also worked with many established directors, including Robert Benton, Lu Chuan, John Curran, Barry Levinson, Dan Petrie Jr., Donald Petrie, Roger Spottiswoode, Fernando Trueba, Peter Weir, and Peter Yates. Actors he has worked with include Ellen Burstyn, Nicholas Cage, Colin Farrell, Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, Ed Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Lange, Queen Latifah, Julianne Moore, Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Saoirse Ronan, Forest Whitaker, Robin Williams, Bruce Willis, and Elijah Wood.
Adam is the author of two highly acclaimed books published by Macmillan, Filmmaking in Action, which is the standard university textbook on filmmaking, and Inside Track for Independent Filmmakers.
Adam also serves as professional faculty at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches in both the MBA and Executive Education programs.
He looks forward to working with you!