With an MFA from Antioch and a student Emmy while earning a B.A. from USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Lehr teaches in the Writers Program at UCLA Extension and contributed to Now Write, for Tarcher. She is a member of the Authors Guild, WGA, Women in Film, Pen, AWP, USC Cinema-TV Alumni, and the Women's Leadership Council of Los Angeles. Lehr has been a panelist for events ranging from the L.A. Times Festival of Books, the Words & Music Conference in New Orleans, the Women’s Filmmakers Symposium, and Artsday LA.  Lehr grew up in Ohio, then made her home in southern California, where she continues to explore the dark and light sides of contemporary women.  

Lehr's first novel, 66 Laps, won the Pirates Alley Faulkner Prize. Leslie’s nonfiction includes, Welcome to Club Mom, The Happy Helpful Grandma Guide, now excerpted on FisherPrice.com, and Wendy Belissimo: Nesting, featured on "Oprah." Her most recent essays include, “I Hate Everybody,” from the controversial anthology Mommy Wars, was lauded by Katie Couric on the Today Show; “Parenting Paranoia” was excerpted in Arianna Huffington’s On Becoming Fearless. Her film, "Heartless," a romantic thriller, financed five other films for Santa Monica Pictures and is screening in Europe for the sixth year after a 3 year run on USA-TV.