Leif Alexis was born in Sweden and studied International Producing at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. During his studies, he developed the feature film Shahada together with Burhan Qurbani, which he also produced. The film had its world premiere in the competition of the 60th Berlinale and won numerous international awards.
Between 2010 and 2016, Leif Alexis worked at UFA Fiction (formerly Teamworx), with a strong focus on developing new projects. There, he developed and produced the groundbreaking transmedia series Dina Foxx I (2011) and Dina Foxx Ii (2014), which won several prestigious international awards, including the renowned Digital Emmy for "Best Fiction Format".
He was also responsible for films such as George (German Television Award), Stations Of The Cross (Kreuzweg) (Silver Bear at the Berlinale for Best Screenplay), and the feature film HARD TO HANDLE (Mängelexemplar). Additionally, he produced Burhan Qurbani’s second feature film We Are Young. We Are StronG (Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark)., which was nominated for the German Film Award in three categories, including Best Film.
In 2022, he produced the ARD Mediathek series Tod den Lebenden, directed by Tom Lass.
For the feature film Berlin Alexanderplatz, which Burhan Qurbani produced in collaboration with Sommerhaus in 2020, Leif Alexis also served as a producer. The film premiered in competition at the 70th Berlinale and was nominated in eleven categories at the German Film Awards, winning five prizes, including the Silver Lola for Best Film. Additionally, Leif Alexis was the co-developer and producer of the innovative Instagram series Ich Bin Sophie Scholl, which launched online in May 2020 and gained nearly one million followers within a month.
Between 2022 and 2024, he produced the six most recent feature films in the crime series Der Barcelona-Krimi starring Clemens Schick and Anne Schäfer in the lead roles. His latest project as a producer is Burhan Qurbani’s new feature film No Beast. So Fierce. (Kein Tier. So Wild) which will premiere at the Berlinale in 2025.
Leif Alexis is a member of both the German and European Film Academy.