Sandy McLeod

Sandy McLeod is an independent filmmaker. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America and has been nominated for an Academy Award. Career Born in Pontiac, Michigan, she was raised in Alabama. In her late teens, she moved to New York City and eventually began her filmmaking career. She learned her craft by doing continuity for over 15 years on feature films and working with directors as diverse as Gerald Diamiano, Richard Attenborough, Karel Reisz, Paul Schrader, Jonathan Demme, and Taylor Hackford. While working behind the camera, as a script supervisor, she also acted in Demme's film Last Embrace. This was the beginning of a brief acting career. She played the lead role in the independently produced film noir Variety, which was invited to the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984. She later had roles in Melvin and Howard, Tootsie, Something Wild, and City of Hope. For a short stretch of time, McLeod worked as a production designer on a series of projects that included PBS’s Trying Times written by Beth Henley, and directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Roseanna Arquette. She also worked on Mountainview, a dance film directed by John Sayles and choreographed by Marta Renzi for “Alive From Off Center”. She collaborated with Demme as the production designer on Swimming to Cambodia.