Jeff Kleeman

Jeff Kleeman is a former production executive at Paramount Pictures who worked on. He started working with the company in 1987 and left in 1991. He is perhaps best known for his subsequent affiliation with MGM/UA during the 1990s and again from September 2007 through August 2008.

Kleeman graduated from Yale University, from which he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He began his career at Paramount as Executive Assistant to the President of Production and subsequently as Executive Director of Production. During his tenure with Paramount, he served as Junior Executive on the films The Hunt for Red October (which featured Timothy Carhart, Daniel Davis, Boris Lee Krutonog, Gates McFadden, and Ned Vaughn) and Internal Affairs (on which John A. Alonzo was Director of Photography). He also served as a Senior Executive on such films as the 1991 musical Stepping Out, which starred Andrea Martin.

After leaving Paramount in 1991, Kleeman became Vice President of Production for Francis Ford Coppola's company, American Zoetrope. While there, he worked on Bram Stoker's Dracula (starring Winona Ryder) and was an Associate Producer on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He also served as Executive Producer on the 195 film Haunted and the 1996 CBS mini-series Titanic (which featured Kevin Conway), in addition to co-producing the TV movie Kidnapped. 

Kleeman began working at MGM/UA in 1993 and was named Executive Vice President of Production in 1997. While there, he oversaw the development and production of the first three James Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough), as well as films such as Lord of Illusions (starring Scott Bakula) and The Thomas Crown Affair (featuring Mark Margolis and Fritz Weaver). He was also responsible for the acquisition of Leaving Las Vegas, the acclaimed, Academy Award-winning 1995 film featuring Thomas Kopache, Ed Lauter, and Steven Weber. Kleeman developed several other film projects at MGM/UA before leaving to join Robert Redford's Catalyst Film Works.

In August 2003 Jeff joined the faculty of the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television as an Adjunct Professor teaching Screenplay Analysis. Soon thereafter, he created, wrote, and produced a situation comedy series for The WB called Misconceptions. In addition, he continues to serve as chairman of the Independent Spirit Awards' Nominating Committee. In September 2007, he returned to MGM/UA to serve as Executive Vice President of Motion Picture Production. In August 2008, Kleeman was chosen to run David Dobkin's Big Kid Productions, where he will help develop feature films as well as television projects.