Leena Pendharkar
Leena Pendharkar is an award-winning writer and director. Her most recent work is the television movie, A Date with Deception for Mar Vista/Lifetime, and two episodes of the kids’ show, Hello Jack! for Apple TV Plus, for which she was nominated for a Children's and Family Emmy Award.
She premiered her sophomore independent film, 20 Weeks, at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It was described as an “intimate, compassionate take on abortion” by the Los Angeles Times, and was released theatrically in 10 cities in April of 2018, and on Hulu and a number of other platforms. Leena is an alum of the Warner Brothers, CBS, and Sony Diverse Directors programs.
Leena has also written/directed several-award winning short films, including her most recent Tiny Joy which played in many a number of film festivals, including Bentonville, and was recently released on Omeleto and Shorted. Leena is also an Associate Professor at LMU’s School of Film + Television, and has an MFA in Screenwriting from UC-Riverside, Palm Desert.
