Ron Leshem

Ron Leshem is an Israeli American 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.

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

Career Initial television work and journalism 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.

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.

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

Television production and adaptation of Euphoria Leshem transitioned from print media to television in 2005.

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. The series had a low budget and did not have the resources to film shorter scenes. It also contained cultural specificities relevant to Israelis and received mixed reviews due to adult content for a conservative audience. 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.

Move to United States, development deals and serial television creation In early 2013, Leshem moved from Israel to the United States, joining Legendary Entertainment as a development producer.

Influenced by the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin at a rally in support of the Oslo Accords, Leshem co-wrote Incitement in 2019 as a political thriller profiling Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, and the influences that shaped his decisions. Leshem stated that "it was never a film about 1995...it's about today—how people are losing faith in democracy and how the politics of hate are taking over." He also signed a development deal with Red Arrow Studios International to create scripted dramas.

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.

Traitor, an eight-part thriller inspired by the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, premiered in Israel in 2022. Leshem co-created, co-wrote and produced the series that was initially picked up by WestEnd Films in 2017. The next year he co-created, co-wrote and produced Red Skies which takes place during the Second Intifada based on a novel by Daniel Shinar. The series was nominated for the Best Series award at the Series Mania festival.

Leshem has also co-written the Hulu series Fertile Crescent, which focuses on the Syrian Civil War. 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. Netflix acquired the global streaming rights after the TIFF premiere and released the series in May 2025. Upon its Netflix release, Bad Boy ranked within the top ten shows on the streaming platform in May.

Keshet International announced that it would launch Leshem's spy thriller Trust No One on its network, which premiered in March 2025, with a later launch on Netflix. As of its premiere, See-Saw Films was in early-stage development on an English adaptation of the series.

Authorship As a novelist, Leshem's debut novel Beaufort was published in Hebrew in 2006. and won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival.

He published his second novel, The Underground Bazaar, a coming-of-age story told in first-person by a student in Tehran. Leshem said his passion was to highlight similarities between Israeli and Iranian societies. The novel was also a bestseller, translated into several languages and published in France, Germany, Italy, and other countries.

Filmography Television YearTitleCredited asCreatorWriterProducerEditor2011–2013 The Gordin Cell 2012 Euphoria 2015 Allegiance 2015 Spy 2013–2015 Beauty and the Baker 2019–present Euphoria (HBO) 2020–present No Man's Land 2020–present Valley of Tears 2022 Traitor 2023 Red Skies 2024 Bad Boy 2024 Trust No One

Film Year Title Director Writer ExecutiveProducer 2007 Beaufort Yitzhak Sadeh Prize Best Novel of The Year Beaufort 2007 Ophir Award, Israeli Academy Awards Best Screenplay Beaufort 2008 80th Academy Awards Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Beaufort 2012 Israeli Television Academy Awards Best Drama Series The Gordin Cell Best Screenplay for Drama Series Series Mania Festival Forum Des Images 2013 Israeli Television Academy Awards Best Drama Series Euphoria Best Screenplay for Drama Series 2014 Israeli Television Academy Awards Best Drama Series The Gordin Cell (2nd season) Best Screenplay for Drama Series 2019 Ophir Award, Israeli Academy Awards Best Film for 2019 Incitement 2020 Series Mania Festival The Official Competition No Man's Land Valley of Tears British Academy Television Awards Best International Programme Euphoria Israeli Television Academy Awards Best Drama Series Valley of Tears C21 International Drama Awards Best Non-English Language Drama Series No Man's Land 2022 Emmy Awards Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series Euphoria 2023 Monte-Carlo Television Festival Best Drama TV Series Trust No One Series Mania Festival Best Series Red Skies Global Indian Film Awards Best TV Series Red Skies TV Series Festival Berlin Best TV Drama Red Skies 2024 Buenos Aires International Film Festival Best TV Series Red Skies 2025 Israeli Television Academy Awards Best Drama Series Bad Boy Best Screenplay for Drama Series