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Jan Eliasberg is a director, writer and producer known for creating evocative material featuring performances from today’s most compelling actors.
- Fox Writers Intensive Fellow
- AFI/FOX Bridge Fellow
- Film Independent Fellow (Producer’s Lab)
- Sloan Foundation Grant/Tribeca Institute
- B.B.C. Short List – Best Screenplays
- The Black List Best Screenplays, 2018
- Francis Ford Coppola Fiction Writing Fellowship
- Jakobsen Fellowship for Fiction
- Sundance Institute, Resident Director
- Dorothy Arzner Directing Award
- Emmy Award — Directing
- Imagen Award for Excellence in Directing
- Best Short Fiction Film, Los Angeles Film Festival
- LA Weekly Award, Best Director
- Orange County Critics Association Award for Best Directing
- Fellow, National Endowment for the Arts
- Fellow, New York State Council on the Arts
- Directing Fellow, Directing Workshop for Women, American Film Institute
Jan Eliasberg is making her debut as a novelist with Hannah’s War, bought by Little, Brown in a bidding war, publication date: March 3, 2020.
For readers of The Nightingale and The Alice Network, Hannah's War is a "mesmerizing" historical debut: “I flew through Hannah’s War, a gripping true story of a brilliant woman physicist working to develop the first atomic bomb and the secrets she fights to protect as a military investigator ruthlessly uncovers her mysterious past.” Martha Hall Kelly (The Lilac Girls; Lost Roses)
A glass ceiling-shattering writer/director, Jan’s film and television career began when she was hand-picked by Michael Mann to be the first female director on Miami Vice and Crime Story. Wiseguy, and 21 Jump Street soon followed, establishing her at the top of the field. Michael Mann remains Jan’s mentor and collaborator to this day, godfathering her film and television career.
Award-winning filmmaker Jan Eliasberg’s HANNAH’S WAR, for readers of The Nightingale and The Alice Network, a thrilling historical debut about a female scientist working to develop the first atomic bomb during World War II, and the young military investigator determined to uncover her secret past.
Publication: March 3, 2020
“I flew through Hannah’s War, a gripping true story long overdue to be told, of a brilliant woman physicist working to develop the first atomic bomb and the secret she fights to protect.”
–Martha Hall Kelly (THE LILAC GIRLS; LOST ROSES)
Jan has directed drama pilots for CBS, ABC and NBC, as well as films and theatre with some of the greatest actors of her generation: Frances McDormand; Michael B. Jordan; Tony Shalhoub; Michelle Williams; Paul Giamatti; Stanley Tucci, and John Turturro. She has directed hundreds of hours of award-winning television including Netflix's Thirteen Reasons Why; The Magicians; Bull; Blue Bloods, N.C.I.S.: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, Parenthood; Nashville; Supernatural and countless others.
SELECTED EPISODIC TV DIRECTING CREDITS
NCIS: LA
CBS/CBS Studios
ABC/Lionsgate Studios
Parenthood
NBC/ABC Studios
Criminal Minds
CBS/CBS-ABC Studios
Supernatural
CW/Warner Brothers
FEATURE FILMS
Past Midnight, starring Rutger Hauer, Natasha Richardson and Paul Giamatti
New Line Cinema/Cinetel Films
PRODUCED TV PILOTS
Wiseguy
CBS/Stephen J. Cannell Productions
San Berdoo
ABC/Spelling Entertainment
Lovers, Partners & Spies
NBC/Edgar Scherick
TELEVISION LONGFORM
Past Midnight
New Line Cinema/Cinetel Films
Wiseguy (Pilot)
CBS/Steven J. Cannell Productions
SHORTS
The Doctor, starring Richard Masur and Lukas Haas
Best U.S. Short Fiction Film, Los Angeles Film Festival
A prolific screenwriter, Eliasberg wrote W.A.S.P. the story of the Women Air Service Pilots in WWII with Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz attached to produce and star; Mi Corazon with Jennifer Lopez attached to produce and star; Before I Sleep with Sophia Lillis (IT, IT2) attached to star; The Gemcutter, a YA magical Christmas movie for Sony Pictures, and a “hip-hop” Pygmalion for Warner Brothers. Jan is attached to direct all of her original screenplays.
For television, she wrote the pilot, Salem, for FX, and Spirit of St. Louis for CBS. She has also been a writer/producer on television series such as Sisters for NBC/Warner Brothers.
FEATURE SCREENWRITING
Before I Sleep
Sophia Lillis (IT, IT2, Sharp Objects) attached to star.
W.A.S.P
Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz attached to produce and star
The Gemcutter
Paul Schiff attached to produce
Sony Pictures
Mi Corazon
Jennifer Lopez attached to produce and star
Universal Pictures
Heart ’n Soul a.k.a. Hip Hop Pygmalion
Warner Brothers
WRITER/PRODUCER-TELEVISON
Salem
Co-creator/Writer/Executive Producer – FilmEngine/FX
Fearless
Creator/Writer/Executive Producer – FOX Studios
Spirit of St. Louis
Creator/Writer/Executive Producer – CBSP/CBS
The Blue Wall
Creator/Writer/Executive Producer – FOX Studios
Sisters
Writer/Producer/Director – Warner Brothers/NBC
Jan received a B.A. from Wesleyan University (magna cum laude); M.F.A. degrees from the Yale School of Drama (directing) and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson (fiction). She is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women.