Directory Profile
Lisa Hepner
Adjunct Associate Professor
Affiliated Divisions:
Division of Film & Television Production
Lisa is a Canadian-American writer and documentary filmmaker. For the past 30 years, she has produced non-fiction film and TV in Toronto, New York and LA. Working alongside directors Michael Apted, Jonathan Demme and Lisa F. Jackson, she has produced documentaries for the CBC, PBS, HBO, A&E, MTV and Sony Pictures Classics.
Career highlights include producing and co-directing the doc feature, “Women on the Frontlines,” that premiered at the UN and aired on PBS in 2004; premiering Jonathan Demme’s “Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains” at TIFF in 2007; and directing “The Human Trial” with her husband Guy Mossman. The film – featured in the New York Times, NPR and Forbes – has sparked a vital conversation on how to support faster cures. It was nominated for a Humanitas Prize in 2022.
As an Adjunct Professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, she loves mentoring the next generation of filmmakers, just as she was mentored decades ago. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America, the Writer’s Guild of America, New York Women in Film & Television, and Roco Voices, a speaker's platform for documentary filmmakers.