LEE FARBER: BIO



Writer/Director Lee Farber hails from a rent-controlled apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City. After graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, he spent years schlepping for producers and directors, while writing in his spare time. Eventually he caught the eye of legendary talent manager and producer Bernie Brillstein, who hired him to write for “The Wayne Brady Show”, a variety series on ABC in 2001. That led to writing and producing Wayne’s daytime talk show (also called “The Wayne Brady Show”) in 2002-03, earning Lee an Emmy Award.

In late 2004, Lee was asked to join a revamped version of “Talk Soup”, simply called “The Soup”, for what was supposed to last 6-8 weeks. It ended up lasting 11 years. During that time, as writer and Co-Executive Producer, Lee helped steer the show to become a staple in the television landscape. He also directed many bits and segments that would gather millions of views on You Tube, which is a website that young people visit often. He also wrote material for hundreds of guest stars, including two of his idols, The Muppets and The Kids In The Hall, after which, he could’ve died happy.

During his tenure on “The Soup”, Lee had several other projects running concurrently, including a sitcom pilot called “Hobos”, Executive Produced by Bernie Brillstein and starring the late comedian Robert Schimmel. He also created and ran an adult version of “The Soup” for Playboy Television called “The Stash”. It ran for four seasons and was watched by literally dozens of people. He also wrote for “Soup” host Joel McHale when he hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2014, which unfortunately did not bring Lee the diplomatic immunity he thought it would.

Lee’s first feature film “The Lonely Italian”, a comedy about online dating which he wrote and directed, premiered on Hulu in 2018 and was awarded Best Comedy Feature at the San Diego International Film Festival. Shortly after that, he directed the filmed segments for “The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale” on Netflix, which is a streaming service featuring “Stranger Things” and a bunch of stand-up comedy specials.

In 2019, Lee directed Amazon’s “This Giant Beast” for Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, featuring Zach Galifianakis, Rashida Jones, Ted Danson, Ed O’Neill, Jason Sudeikis, Mary Steenburgen and Colin Hanks. It led to Amazon becoming a successful company that now puts people in space. Most recently, Lee wrote and directed the hit comedy series "Expedition Back To The Future" for Discovery, starring Christopher Lloyd, Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Josh Gates, which premiered in 2021.

Lee lives two blocks outside of a really good school district with his wife and one two daughters.