---
name: "Michael Lessac"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/michael-lessac"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "1 January 1940"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-20T21:10:50.722006+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Michael Lessac

Director. Born 1 January 1940.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 1 January 1940
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6832210, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0504297/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1213083

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Taxi*](https://film.one/tv/taxi.md) (86)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Michael Lessac (born 1940) is an American theatre, television and film director and screenwriter. He holds a Ph.D. in developmental and perceptual psychology from the University of Pennsylvania (1965) and began his career in theatre, later receiving a McKnight Fellowship to the Guthrie Theater.

In 1974 he founded the Colonnades Theatre Lab in New York City, serving as artistic director until 1984 and producing and directing over thirty productions. He has also directed stage work at venues including the Guthrie Theater, the Public Theater and the Kennedy Center. Lessac wrote and directed the feature film *House of Cards* (1993), starring Tommy Lee Jones and Kathleen Turner.

He has directed more than 200 television episodes and sixteen pilots, including episodes of *Taxi* (1978), *Newhart* (1982), *Grace Under Fire* (1993), *The Drew Carey Show* (1995), *Everybody Loves Raymond* (1996) and *Titus* (2000). He directed the one-woman show *Tallulah* starring Kathleen Turner and created the international theatre piece *Truth in Translation*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, globalartscorps.org, encyclopedia.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Taxi* (1978), Fi1m 86, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/taxi.md)

## Also known for

- *Everybody Loves Raymond* (1996), Director
- *The Drew Carey Show* (1995), Director
- *House of Cards* (1993), Story, Writer, Director
- *Newhart* (1982), Director

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/michael-lessac