30 Facts About Lexi Alexander

Alexandra Mirai, known professionally as Lexi Alexander, is a German-Palestinian filmmaker and martial artist.

Lexi Alexander subsequently directed Green Street, a crime drama about British football hooliganism, and Punisher: War Zone, an adaptation of the Marvel Comics character of the same name.

Lexi Alexander was born Alexandra Mirai in Mannheim, Germany, to a German mother and a Palestinian father.

Lexi Alexander began studying martial arts, specifically judo, when she was 8 years old.

Lexi Alexander excelled at kickboxing, where after two years in the sport, she joined the German National Team.

Lexi Alexander won the German point fighting championships four times and the European championships two times.

In 1994, at the age of 19, Lexi Alexander became the World Kickboxing Association world champion in karate-point fighting in Atlantic City.

Lexi Alexander had met Chuck Norris at a kickboxing event in the United States and she had previously acted in small roles in German TV.

Lexi Alexander went on to work steadily as a stunt person doing fighting stunts and motorcycles, falls from high-rise buildings, going on to learn precision driving and race car driving.

Lexi Alexander worked as an unarmed combat instructor for the United States Marine Corps in 1994.

Lexi Alexander studied acting in Los Angeles at Joanne Baron's acting school learning Meisner technique and with acting coach Piero Dusa.

Lexi Alexander took extension classes in filmmaking at University of California, Los Angeles.

The first film Lexi Alexander directed was called Johnny Flynton, a short film that was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003.

Lexi Alexander said that the film, about a boxer from Alabama who is charged with murder, is a fictional story that was inspired by meeting a boxer in Germany when she was 9 years old, an interaction that she remembered and was the basis of the idea for the film.

The film was self-financed by Lexi Alexander and had a budget of US$35,000 and was filmed in 5 days.

In 2005, Lexi Alexander directed her first full-length feature film called Green Street, known as Green Street Hooligans, or Hooligans.

In 2008, Lexi Alexander directed the film Punisher: War Zone starring Ray Stevenson as the Punisher.

Lexi Alexander was the first woman to direct a Marvel adaptation and it was her first studio film.

The film's budget shrank considerably, and Lexi Alexander wanted to work on a studio film so she said she was hired at a low rate.

In 2010, Lexi Alexander wrote and directed the straight-to-video film Lifted, shot in Alabama, which had themes of Christianity.

In 2014, the higher profile Lexi Alexander received from her advocacy work speaking out about gender parity in Hollywood on Twitter led to Lexi Alexander getting hired to direct episodic television.

In February 2018, it was announced that Lexi Alexander was working on a TV series for Blumhouse Productions called You Bury Me, intended to be a war-torn love story set in modern-day Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

In June 2018, Lexi Alexander was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Lexi Alexander has a long-term working relationship with martial artist Pat Johnson, who she has hired as a stunt coordinator and choreographer since starting her directing her career.

In early 2014, on her Twitter feed and in a blog post that was republished and widely discussed, Lexi Alexander discussed the lack of women directors in Hollywood and lifted back the curtain on the lack of gender parity in the entertainment industry.

Lexi Alexander worked to support the American Civil Liberties Union investigation into gender bias in hiring practices, specifically for women directors, which cast a critical eye on the role of the Directors Guild of America.

In 2015, Lexi Alexander testified about her experiences as part of an investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on hiring practices in Hollywood.

Lexi Alexander has said she is against illegal file sharing but instead supports innovative file sharing over big businesses exploiting digital distribution models.

Lexi Alexander thinks the money used by the MPAA would be better spent improving diversity and more equitable distribution models.

Lexi Alexander has metal screws in her knees from her time as a kickboxer.