Jonathan Liebesman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 15, 1976. He would remain in his home country, studying filmmaking at the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, until 1996; that year, he traveled to New York City to visit his cousin who was attending New York University. Soon after the visit, Jonathan enrolled at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. For his student first film, Jonathan turned 'Roald Dahl' with Warner Bros.
Studied at AFDA Film School in South Africa.
Studied at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City.
[on directing Battle Los Angeles (2011) ] I think that what we,were trying to do was make a war movie that had aliens, rather than do,an alien movie that just had soldiers as an afterthought. It was an,opportunity to to try and examine what an alien invasion would be,really like, from the point of view of a platoon. .
