LEILAH WEINRAUB
FILM DIRECTOR & ARTIST
RECENT
Los Angeles Times — Profile by Farhia Róisín
ABOUT →
TALKS →
ACTING →
CONSULTING →
CONTACT →
Leilah Weinraub is a film director and artist.
Founder & Principal — Texarkana
Her feature documentary SHAKEDOWN premiered at the Whitney Biennial and the Berlin International Film Festival.
Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Tate Modern, the Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and the São Paulo Biennial.
DIRECTED WORK → CV
Professional Director and Artist
Founder & Principal — Texarkana
2020–present
Co-founder & CEO — Hood By Air
2010–2018
Film2025 — Seek No Favor — short film
2018 — Shakedown — feature documentary
Bad Liquor for Bag Ladies — short film (in development)
Los Angeles Syndrome — television series (in development)
Solo Exhibitions2018 — Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Harlem, New York, NY
2018 — What Pipeline, Detroit, MI
Group Exhibitions
2025 — Made in L.A. 2025, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2023 — São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil
2021 — Moving Image Biennial, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
2021 — LEAN, Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
2021 — LEAN, Performa, New York, NY
2019 — RE:WORKING* LABOR***, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
2018 — Putting Out, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY
2017 — Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Jury Service
2023 — Athens International Film + Video Festival
Jury Member, 50th Festival Edition
Awards, Grants and Residencies
2025 — NewFest
Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award (Seek No Favor)
2025 — BlackStar Film Festival
Nominee, Best Short Narrative (Seek No Favor)
2024 — New Theater Hollywood, Los Angeles
Artist-in-Residence
2019 — Cinereach
Post-Production Grant (Shakedown)
2019 — Sundance Institute
Art of Nonfiction Fellow
2018 — Indie Memphis Film Festival
Best Documentary Feature (Shakedown)
2018 — Outfest
Special Programming Committee Award (Shakedown)
2018 — Images Festival, Toronto
Can’t Get You Out of My Head Award (Shakedown)
2018 — Berlinale
Nominee, Teddy Award / Best Documentary Film (Shakedown)
2015 — CFDA Fashion Awards
Swarovski Award for Menswear (Hood By Air)
2014 — LVMH Prize
Special Jury Prize (Hood By Air)
2014 — Frameline Completion Fund
Completion Award (Shakedown)
Film Independent — Project Involve Fellow
Wexner Center for the Arts
Artist Residency
Lectures & Visiting Artist
2026 — Hunter College
Documentary Film Program
visiting artist conversation
2026 — University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman School of Design / Institute of Contemporary Art
visiting artist lecture series — lecture
2026 — University of Pennsylvania (MFA Fine Arts)
visiting artist — studio visits
2025 — Columbia University School of the Arts
visiting artist — lecture + studio visits
2025 — Yale School of Art
visiting artist — lecture
2025 — Rikers Island Jail Library Program (New York Public Library)
artist talk + workshop
2023 — Bard MFA
visiting artist
2019 — UCLA Graduate Art
visiting artist — studio visits
2018 — Southern Methodist University — Meadows School of the Arts
visiting artist
Select Bibliography & Press2025 — Los Angeles Times
“With The Kids, Leilah Weinraub Creates Performances for the Future,” by Fariha Róisín (October 16, 2025)
2025 — Made in L.A. 2025 Catalogue, Hammer Museum
“A Nonviolent Choice,” essay by Terence Nance; curated by Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha, p. 295
2024 — Interview Magazine
“Kiernan ‘Knives’ Francis and Leilah Weinraub on Innuendo, Belonging, and the New York Dream”
2022 — BUTT Magazine
“Laid Back and Getting Laid in LA,” by Michael Holt. Issue 31, Autumn 2022, p. 12
2021 — Marfa Journal
“Ottessa Moshfegh in Conversation with Leilah Weinraub.” Photographs by Rachel Chandler; styling by Malina Joseph Gilchrist
2021 — i-D Magazine
“The Former CEO of Hood By Air on How the Brand Ended Fashion,” by Atheel Elmalik. The Darker Issue, Winter 2021
2021 — May Revue
“On the Film Shakedown,” by Juliana Huxtable
2020 — TIME Magazine
“Black Cinema: 25 Essential Movies,” by Cady Lang (September 3, 2020)
2020 — Black Futures
“Mother of the House,” by Thomas J. Lax. In Black Futures, edited by Kimberly Drew & Jenna Wortham
2020 — IndieWire
“Shakedown Is the Lesbian Strip Club Doc Good Enough That It’ll Be on Both Pornhub and Criterion,” by Jude Dry (March 3, 2020)
2020 — Variety
“Shakedown: Film Review,” by Jessica Kiang (June 4, 2020)
2020 — Film Comment
“News to Me: Max von Sydow, Leilah Weinraub, and Kelly Reichardt,” by James Wham (March 9, 2020)
2020 — Vanity Fair
“Shakedown Is a Must-See Documentary Now Streaming on Pornhub,” by K. Austin Collins (March 16, 2020)
2020 — The New York Times
“Leilah Weinraub’s Radical Crossover,” by Melena Ryzik (April 3, 2020)
2018 — The New Yorker
“Leilah Weinraub’s Radical Cinema of Privacy,” by Cassie da Costa (March 16, 2018)
2018 — Dazed
“Shakedown: LA Confidential,” by Hannah Black (June 28, 2018)
2018 — Cultured Magazine
“Both/And: The Brilliance of Multi-Hyphenate Leilah Weinraub,” by Rindon Johnson (December 11, 2018)
2016 — The New Yorker
“Hood By Air’s Radically Aggressive Streetwear,” by Christopher Glazek (August 29, 2016)
2014 — The New York Times
“Hood By Air’s Collective Fashions,” by Jonah Weiner (September 12, 2014)
Education
Bard College — Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Antioch College — Media and Social Change
Yellow Springs, OH