Ron Leshem

Ron Leshem is an Israeli American screenwriter, producer, journalist and novelist. He is best known internationally as the co-creator and co-writer of the original Israeli series Euphoria (2012), the source material for the HBO drama on which he also serves as an executive producer.

His first screenplay, Beaufort (2007), adapted from his own novel, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film. The novel took Israel's Sapir Prize in 2006. Across two decades he has written and produced Israeli and international television, including The Gordin Cell, No Man's Land and Valley of Tears, and in October 2026 he was named alongside Amit Cohen as writer of Marvel's Zodiac spy series for Disney+. [edit]

Born in Tel Aviv in December 1976, Leshem came up through Israeli journalism rather than film school. He worked as a reporter and editor before moving into television, eventually serving as deputy director in charge of programming at Channel Two, the country's main commercial network. That post put him inside the machinery of Israeli broadcasting at a time when the industry was expanding its original drama output, and it gave him a working view of how shows get commissioned, budgeted and scheduled.

He also served in the Israeli military. The experience is widely understood to have shaped Beaufort, his novel about the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, though his service record has not been detailed in public sources.

The novel arrived in 2006 and changed the shape of his career. Beaufort topped Israel's bestseller list for two years and won the Sapir Prize, the country's top literary honor. Joseph Cedar directed the 2007 film adaptation, which Leshem co-wrote, and it became Israel's entry in the Best International Feature Film race at the Academy Awards. By the time that nomination landed, Leshem had already made the transition from television executive to working screenwriter, a shift that set up everything that followed. [edit]

The Oscar nomination for Beaufort in 2008 opened doors internationally. Leshem moved into series television as a creator, writing The Gordin Cell, a spy drama about a Mossad family that was later adapted in the United States as Allegiance. He co-created and co-wrote the original Euphoria in 2012 with Daphna Levin, a series about Israeli teenagers navigating sex, drugs and social media. It became the basis for Sam Levinson's HBO adaptation, on which Leshem is an executive producer. The HBO series earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series in 2022, giving Leshem a share of that recognition.

He co-created No Man's Land (2020) for Hulu and France 2, and Valley of Tears (2020) for HBO Max, the latter set during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He co-wrote the 2019 film Incitement, about the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In October 2026, Marvel and Disney+ enlisted Leshem and his longtime writing partner Amit Cohen to write Zodiac, a spy thriller series following a pair of spies hunting superpowered targets. Deadline broke the news on October 22, 2026, with The Playlist, Polygon and Ynetnews following the next day. It is his first major American franchise assignment. [edit]

Leshem cuts an unusual figure in the prestige television world: a former network programming executive turned novelist turned showrunner, with a literary prize and an Oscar nomination on the same shelf. In interviews he tends to speak in the measured, slightly weary register of someone who spent years inside commissioning meetings, and he is more likely to discuss the mechanics of getting a show made than to trade in hype. His public presence is that of a working writer rather than a celebrity, and his social media footprint is modest. The Marvel assignment in 2026 pushed him briefly into the entertainment trade press in a way his Israeli productions rarely did. [edit]

iFANN has not yet collected fame data for Ron Leshem, so no placement in the Global Fame Rankings is available for him. His recognition runs through his work rather than his name: the Israeli Euphoria and the HBO adaptation built an audience that knows the show far better than it knows the writers behind it. He is not on the September 2026 iFAMOUS Rankings flagship list.

The fanbase around him has no formal name and no organized structure. What exists is a prestige television and literary readership: viewers who trace HBO's Euphoria back to its Israeli source, readers who found Beaufort through the film, and, since October 2026, Marvel followers tracking the development of Zodiac through trade reports. That audience is attentive but not fandom in the conventional sense, and Leshem has not cultivated one. [edit]

Leshem's career spans a national literary prize, an Oscar-nominated screenplay and the source material for one of HBO's defining Gen Z dramas, a combination few writers can claim. He has said publicly that Euphoria took roughly seven years of pitching before it was made, with doors slammed and executives passing along the way.

His partnership with Amit Cohen runs through The Gordin Cell, No Man's Land and now Zodiac, making it one of the longer-running writing collaborations in Israeli television. He is based in Boston, a detail that surfaces in his public profiles rather than in his official credits.

Search interest in his personal life tends to run ahead of the record: queries about a wife or husband appear in autocomplete, but no credible outlet has confirmed a partner. [edit]

Leshem was born and raised in Israel and has kept details of his family out of public view. No spouse, partner or children are documented in reliable sources, and interviews tend to stay on the work rather than on his household. He is now described as Boston-based, which places him in the United States for at least part of the year while his productions continue in Israel and internationally. [edit]

Amit Cohen is his most frequent collaborator, co-writing The Gordin Cell, No Man's Land and Zodiac. Daphna Levin co-created the Israeli Euphoria with him, and Sam Levinson adapted it for HBO. Joseph Cedar directed the film version of Beaufort. [edit]

No public romantic relationships, marriages or children are documented for Ron Leshem in reliable sources. Search interest in his personal life is visible in autocomplete queries about a wife or husband, but no credible outlet has confirmed a partner. As of 2026, his relationship status is not publicly known, and he appears to keep that side of his life private. [edit]

Ron Leshem's earnings come from screenwriting and producing fees rather than from a single high-profile contract. His executive producer credit on HBO's Euphoria is the most visible line item, and producing roles on that scale typically carry per-episode fees plus a share of backend returns. His Israeli and international series work, including No Man's Land and Valley of Tears, adds development and production income, and his novels generate royalties and adaptation rights.

The Marvel and Disney+ assignment on Zodiac, announced in October 2026, is likely to be his largest single writing deal to date, though terms have not been disclosed. WGA-scale rates for a streaming series at that level run well into six figures per episode for established writers, and a franchise assignment of this kind usually includes additional producing or consulting provisions.

iFANN currently estimates Leshem's net worth at approximately $4 million. That figure reflects a career built on mid-budget international television and literary rights rather than blockbuster film work, and it is likely to rise as the Marvel project moves into production. [edit]

Leshem's confirmed competitive win is the Sapir Prize in 2006 for his novel Beaufort, Israel's top literary honor. His film and television work has earned major nominations, including an Academy Award nod for Beaufort and a Primetime Emmy nomination for HBO's Euphoria, but no other confirmed wins appear in the record. [edit]