In her 25 years of television and film work, Leslie Bloom has accumulated a wealth of production experience in television series, TV movies, feature films, educational videos and television commercials. Her producer/director, production manager and assistant director credits range from the series Bill Nye the Science Guy and Northern Exposure, to the feature films, and from a non-broadcast life skills educational series for the middle school students to nationally and internationally broadcast commercials. Bloom holds a B.A. in Speech Communications, with an emphasis on film production from the University of Oregon, is a member in good standing of the Director’s Guild of America.
During its final two seasons, she joined the team at Disney presents Bill Nye the Science Guy as first assistant director. After promotion to the position of line producer/director, Bloom reorganized the scheduling and shooting of the show to promote directorial continuity, helping to lead the show to two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children’s Series in 1999 & 2000. She was also instrumental in successfully launching two more educational series, National Geographic’s The Amazing Planet and Sci-Squad (a co-production of KCTS and The Discovery Channel). These projects were done on a shoestring with minimal staff. The organizational and logistical talents Bloom has developed through years of production managing and assistant directing made it possible to get them shot on schedule and under budget.
Bloom’s interest in producing quality entertaining, educational programming led her to create EarthWalk Productions in 1990, as an outlet for her own creative energies. While continuing her career in the wider work of television and film, she teamed up with Native American director/videographer Ron Foss to create Between Earth and Sky, a dramatic series celebrating the tradition of story telling in Native American Culture. Bloom was awarded an ITVS grant to develop this project.
Bloom’s experience with productions of all sizes and shapes and creative insight has given the documentary, Mama Earth, an entertaining presentation of broad, “need to know” content targeting the masses is now in distribution through the educational system.
Storybook Theater has taken a place in Bloom’s life and along with her love for children’s programming to the marketplace. She and the creators are currently shooting all of the original adaptations for DVD distribution. The 3 witty musicals that have been produced to DVD include Chicken Little, The 3 Pigs, and Cinderella.
COMMERCIALS
Worked on over 100 commercials in Los Angeles, Portland & Seattle as a
Producer, 1st A.D., 2nd A.D., Production Manager/Coordinator and
Production Assistant. (Credit list available)
Awards
Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series 1992 - Northern Exposure
DGA Award for Best Night Time Show "Cicely" - Northern Exposure
Key 2nd A.D./2nd 2nd A.D. - 80 ep.
NBC/Pipeline Production
Emmy Awards for Best Children's Show 1999 & 2000 - Bill Nye The Science Guy
Line Producer/Prod.Mgr – 15 ep. Disney/KCTS/ McKenna-Gottlieb
188 Nationally televised episodic shows
"Mama Earth" Documentary Film - Director Producer
Aurora Platimum Award for Best Environmental Film
Gold Award for Music
Best Sustainability Film - Pine Film Festival 2006
Calypso Award - Moondance File Festival