CV
Professional ExperienceFilm Director and Artist
Founder & Principal, Texarkana
2020–present
Co-founder & CEO, Hood By Air
2010–2018
Visiting Artist
2025 — Columbia University (MFA Art) visiting artist, studio visits
2025 — Yale University (MFA Art) visiting artist
2025 — Rikers Island Jail Library Program (NYPL) 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)
Select Video Interviews2019 — DIS.art
Shakedown: Director’s Commentary
2019 — University of California Television (UCTV)
Shakedown — interview with Leilah Weinraub
Interviewer: Mireille Miller-Young
2018 — Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Shakedown Q&A (YouTube)
2017 — Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt
MMK Talks (YouTube)
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
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
Jury Service
2023 — Athens International Film + Video Festival
Jury Member, 50th Festival Edition
Education
Bard College — Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Antioch College — Media and Social Change
Yellow Springs, OH
Last Updated November 2025