Leslee udwin biography

British filmmaker, actress, director and human rights activist

Leslee Udwin (born 1957)^[2] is a Jewish British filmmaker,^[3] actress, director, producer, human rights activist, as well as being the founder and Executive Chair of Think Equal.

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Early life

She was born in Savyon, Israel, to a European Jewish family with roots in England, Germany and Lithuania. At the age of about nine, she went with her family to South Africa where they spent the next ten years.

Her parents were religious Jews, but at the age of about thirteen, she rebelled against Judaism, particularly the morning prayer called Shacharit, in which men say, "I thank God that he did not make me a woman".^[1][5]

Career

While her father wanted her to be a lawyer, Udwin supported herself working in theatre and teaching while at university; in her first year she was raped, a fact she told nobody about at the time.^[1] She began her caree