Lester W. Cohen

Lester began his career in the mid 1980's designing independent features in New York. Some of his early films were True Love directed by Nancy Savoca, and Juice starring Tupac Shakur. Along the way, he has had the good fortune of working with a wide variety of talented directors such as Alfonso Cuaron, Susanne Bier, Doug Liman, Jim Mangold, Jim Sheridan, Anne Sewitsky, Bronwen Hughes, Ernest Dickerson, John Turturro, Richard Shepard, Simon Curtis, Susan Seidelman, Nick Gomez, Wai-Kung Lau, David Duchovny, Alex Gibney and Errol Morris.

Lester designed both Smile and Smile 2 directed by Parker Finn. His feature work also includes such dramatic films as Cop Land, Stander, and The Assassination of Richard Nixon. The comedies Fading Gigolo, Forces of Nature, The Jesus Rolls, the children’s film Harriet the Spy, and the documentary The Thin Blue Line.

Lester has also been active in the commercial world, designing hundreds of ads for the likes of American Express, Verizon, eBay, FedEx, KAYAK, Mercedes, Nike, Suntory Whiskey, and many others.  He has designed numerous television series & pilots, including the limited series The Night Of and The Undoing for HBO. The Changeling for Apple, The Looming Tower for Hulu, Tales of the City for Netflix, and Unspeakable: The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey for 101 studios.

He recently completed designing a television project for A24 called Crystal Lake.

Member: AMPAS, IATAS, ADG, IATSE local 829, and the DGA.

Courses

GFMTVGT. 2011.01 8759 - Aesthetics: Intro to Production Design

Education

BFA NYU TSOA