Alek Lev is a nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter (NIC-Master, CI, CT), a director, actor, and writer, and a political organizer. He has interpreted for three presidents, two Broadway shows, and one Beatle. Over the last twenty years, he has worked freelance in New York and Los Angeles, has taught translation at California State University at Northridge, and has presented CEU workshops to interpreters all around the country.  

Throughout 2020, Alek presented three workshops (Politics 1, 2, and 3) with nothing but a computer and his CMP sponsor. In total, Alek held 41 sessions, for more than 500 participants. He has taken all that he learned from those experiences and developed DO IT YOURSELF: PRESENTING YOUR WORKSHOP FROM HOME.

Alek also worked on several presidential campaigns, functioning as a campaign surrogate, congressional district team coordinator, city-wide training director, precinct captain organizer, and special project assistant to the State and Field Directors. He also ran - alas, unsuccessfully - to join his local community council. He has interpreted for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. His political experience (and mild obsession) led to the creation of the POLITICS WORKSHOP SERIES.

Alek trained at The National Theatre of the Deaf’s Professional Theatre School, and stage managed, interpreted, and performed on to tour with their children’s theater, The Little Theatre of the Deaf. In Los Angeles, he has worked with Deaf West Theatre, appearing in Romeo and Juliet and Flowers for Algernon, directing their Much Ado About Nothing workshop, and rehearsal interpreting for Spring Awakening, At Home at the Zoo, and American Buffalo. Alek recently directed a workshop of the opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites with a cast of Deaf and hearing actors at Victory Hall Opera House in Virginia.

Alek is the writer/director of the upcoming film, WHAT? – a black and white, silent (and signing) feature-length comedy starring deaf and hearing actors. He also wrote, directed, and edited the feature film Ready or Not, and co-starred in the Independent Spirit Award-winning film, Conventioneers. He has appeared on television in How I Met Your Mother, Miami Medical, and I’m Dying Up Here. For four years, Alek was the New Media Director for How I Met Your Mother, where he produced and hosted their official podcast. He is currently the producer and co-host of iHeart Media’s podcast, Meeting Tom Cruise. Alek’s work in film and theater inspired the development of his workshop, ACTING TOOLS FOR TERPS: A CRASH COURSE IN SOUNDING HUMAN.

Abraham Lincoln has been of particular interest to Alek for the last 20 years. He has interpreted at Ford’s Theatre, and has visited Lincoln’s adult home and museum in Springfield. He is currently in development on a 10-episode podcast series on Lincoln’s assassination, in collaboration with Ford’s Theatre, The Lincoln Library, the Surratt Tavern Museum, and several noted Lincoln and Booth authors. Alek is currently preparing ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A GENERAL STUDIES WORKSHOP.

Alek graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University with a BA in Theater and English.