Human Rights Advocate and Filmmaker
Leslee was voted by the NY Times the No 2 Most Impactful Woman of 2015 (second to Hillary Clinton), and has been awarded the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Human Rights Prize (previously won by Madeleine Albright). She has also been named Safe’s Global Hero of 2015, Global Thinker by Foreign Policy.
A filmmaker and Human Rights Campaigner, Leslee is no stranger to successful campaigning films. “Who Bombed Birmingham?” (starring John Hurt) for HBO and Granada TV, directly led to the release of the ‘Birmingham Six’ after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment. Her feature film “East is East” (35 prestigious awards worldwide, including British Oscar for Best Film) did much to promote tolerance and the celebration of diversity as between the Asian and British communities and has become a classic film taught in schools across Europe. Her documentary “India’s Daughter”, has been critically acclaimed around the globe, won 32 awards (including the Peabody Award and the Amnesty International Media Award for Best Documentary 2016) and sparked a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
The searing insights yielded by the 2½ journey making “India’s Daughter”, led Leslee to found UK-and-US-based Not for Profit global education charity “Think Equal”, of which she is the Founder and President.