UMBRELLA STREET MEDIA

Umbrella Street is a creative studio specializing in commercials, documentaries, scripted series, branded entertainment, social media content, feature films — and just about everything else that uses words, sounds and images to tell a great story. 

We harness a variety of tools and creative talent to construct engaging ideas, content, and experiences across all platforms. We have created award-winning films, series and commercials that have been shown across the world and web. And we keep our over-head low so we can accomplish big things on tight budgets.

Known for our story-telling flair and get-it-done approach, we combine creative solutions with hands-on production at a very early stage to create original, efficient and effective work regardless of scope and budget.  We have extensive experience helping companies build their brands with content that directly and measurably results in bottom-line growth.   

FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL / STEPHEN LEEDS

Stephen Leeds is the Founder, Creative Director and Principal Creative at Umbrella Street Media. He’s been honored by the New York Film Society's New Films New Directors series at the Museum of Modern Art. He earned a Pollie Award for his advertising work and has created hundreds of ads for TV and the web. He is also a writer, director and producer on feature motion-picture and television works for various Hollywood studios. He recently co-wrote and co-created a scripted series about the life of famed author Ernest Hemingway for Phoenix Pictures & Image Movers. Series will be directed by legendary Acadamy Award winning director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Back To The Future, Cast Away) and produced by industry icon, Mike Medavoy.

Past works from Stephen include scripts for The Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Fox, New Regency, Alcon Entertainment, Phoenix Pictures and many others.

Expanding into new media, Stephen and Umbrella Street recently produced the popular steaming sci-fi meta comedy series for kids, Ginormo. Announced at Comic Con and featured on Good Morning America, “the irrevrently awful giant-robot throwback show for fanboys and sci-fi nerds” together with Ginormo related content garnered over 50 million total views before the end of its initial week in release. Labled “first of its kind” and a "disrupter series" in the press, Ginormo stars eight social media creators with a combined 1.5 billion monthly views.

Umbrella Street’s commercial division began when Stephen created and produced the first ever national TV ad for an iPhone app, Dictionary.com. After the spots aired, the app sky-rocketed to #2 in the Apple Store with over 40 million downloads and landed on Apple's All-Time Top 30 Apps List. Since then, Stephen has created, produced and directed national TV campaigns for Overstock.com, Ask.com, Six Flags, 1800Flowers, Turtle Wax, Shakey’s Pizza and many others. In addition to his client work, he has created branded entertainment shorts for College Humor and directed a feature film.

Stephen has a B.A. in literature & writing from U.C.L.A. and an M.F.A. in film from Columbia University, where his comedy short, Get That Number, won Best Picture at Columbia’s Polo Ralph Lauren / New Line Cinema Festival of New Works. Spin Magazine called it "an urban opus" and esteemed director Milos Foreman said it was "truly a wonderful film." It won Best Picture at six international film festivals and was awarded Filmmaker Magazine's Audience Choice Award. Sundance Mentor and NYU Tisch School of Dramatic Writing founder Dan Kleinman placed the film on his list of Top 10 Best Shorts of All Time.