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AQUINNAH FILMS

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Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark
Linda Lichter
(310) 205-6999 phone

Jan Eliasberg’s directing career began when she was hand-picked by Michael Mann to be the first female director on his ground-breaking series MIAMI VICE and CRIME STORY. WISEGUY and 21 JUMP STREET soon followed, establishing Jan at the top of her field.

Eliasberg has nurtured performances in film and television from some of the finest actors of her generation: Frances McDormand; Michael B. Jordan; Michelle Williams; the late Natasha Richardson; Tony Shalhoub; Stanley Tucci, Angela Bassett, Paul Giamatti, and John Turturro. She has directed hundreds of hours of award-winning television, including drama pilots for CBS, NBC and ABC, as well as multiple episodes of THIRTEEN REASONS WHY; PARENTHOOD; THE MAGICIANS; NASHVILLE, BULL, BLUE BLOODS, NCIS LOS ANGELES, DAWSON’S CREEK, PARTY OF FIVE, CRIMINAL MINDS and countless others.

As a screenwriter, Eliasberg wrote W.A.S.P.--the story of the women air service pilots in WWII—for Disney with Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz attached to produce and star; MI CORAZON for Universal Pictures, with Jennifer Lopez attached to produce and star; and a “hip-hop Pygmalion” for Warner Brothers, with Rihanna attached to star. Her original screenplay, BEFORE I SLEEP, was published by Screenplay Press. She has also written and produced for television: the pilot SALEM for FX, and SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS for CBS. She was co-executive producer of NBC/Warner Brothers’ SISTERS, both as a writer and director.

Inspired by research about the Women Air Service Pilots, Jan discovered the story of Dr. Lise Meitner, the genius physicist who discovered nuclear fission, but was erased from history because she was both female and Jewish. The story took shape as a book, Jan’s debut novel, HANNAH’S WAR, which was bought by Little, Brown/Hachette in a bidding war and has sold 55,000 + copies to date. HANNAH’S WAR was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Jan has adapted the novel into a screenplay which she will direct. Eliasberg received a B.A. from Wesleyan University (magna cum laude), and MFA degrees from the Yale School of Drama (directing) and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson (fiction), where she studied with PEN/Faulkner winner Charles Baxter, and National Book Award winner, Joan Silber. Her work has appeared on the Black List, the BBC Short List, as well as being selected for the Fox Writer’s Intensive, Film Independent Producer’s Lab., the Francis Ford Coppola Writing Fellowship and the Granta award. She has received the Dorothy Arzner Directing Award, an Emmy award, and the Imagen Award for Excellence in Directing. Jan is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women.

Jan lives in New York City, has just completed her second book, SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE, and is starting research on her third.