X

LEILAH WEINRAUB

Born 1979 in Los Angeles, California.

Lives and works in New York and Los Angeles.

Professional

Director and Artist

Founder & Principal — Texarkana
2020–present

Co-founder & CEO — Hood By Air
2010–2018

Film

2025 — 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 Exhibitions

2018 — 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 & Press

2025 — 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