Biography
Leila Gerstein is an American television writer and producer. She was raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and attended Hunter College High School. After college she studied at theatre school while working as an SAT tutor and writing plays. Several of her plays were produced before she moved to Los Angeles.
A personal essay performed at Upright Citizens Brigade led to commissions from the Oxygen network, including a pilot and two television films. Gerstein went on to write episodes of Life As We Know It, The O.C. and Gossip Girl, and to produce Eli Stone. She created the CW series Hart of Dixie (2011–2015), on which she also served as showrunner.
Gerstein contributed as a consulting producer and writer to The Handmaid's Tale (2017), for which she shared a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. Her later credits include writing and producing Saint X (2023) and Cursed (2020).
