Hagai Levi is an Israeli director and film producer. Born in kibbutz Sha’alvim, Levi is a graduate of Bar Ilan University’s Department of Psychology and Philosophy, and Tel Aviv University’s Department of Film and Television Studies. Levi took his early professional steps as a writer and critic for the now-defunct daily paper, Hadashot and local Tel Aviv magazines, Tel Aviv Times (‘zman Tel Aviv’) and The City (‘Ha’ir.’) In 1993 he directed his debut feature film, August Snow and in 1996, created and took part in the making of Short Stories about Love – a nine-part film anthology that included, amongst others, Malka Lev Adom (‘red queen’), Shuly’s Fiance, Gotta Have Heart, and Hatulot Hara’am (‘thunder pussycats’). Levi next produced three documentaries, It Kinda Scares me and Aviv – both directed by Tomer Heymann, and Timna Rosenheimer’s My Sister. Levi, by that point, had created and produced numerous TV series however his big break came with In Therapy, which he developed along with Ori Sivan and Nir Bergman. In Therapy won countless awards and was even sold to US cable network, HBO that produced its own remake (In Treatment), which was the first in a string of many, international adaptations the series would have.
In 2014, Levi created mockumentary series, The Accursed, followed by Showtime’s The Affair that won him a Golden Globe. He next teamed up with Joseph Cedar and Tawfik Abu Wael to create Our Boys, a series set around the true events that led to the abduction and killing of Palestinian teenager, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The series premiered in 2019 to great critical acclaim.
