Avi Lerner

Israeli American film producer

Avinoam Lerner (; born 13 October 1947) is an Israeli American film producer, primarily of American action movies. Lerner is the founder and CEO of Millennium Films.

Avi Lerner was born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine, on October 13, 1947, to a Jewish family; he grew up on Hatzionut Boulevard. He joined the Israeli military in 1966 and served in the Six Day War and in the Paratroopers Brigade. In an interview with Pnai Plus, Lerner said he took part in the battle for the town of Rafah before penetrating as far as the Suez Canal. He served in the 1973 Yom Kippur War as a reservist. Lerner originally worked in movie theaters in Tel Aviv In 2018, Hollywood actor Terry Crews accused Lerner of making a phone call to his manager in which he said Lerner threatened to introduce difficulties into Terry Crews' career unless Crews dropped his case against Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor, employer of agent and founding member Adam Venit.

The bulk of Lerner's films featured action stars who were at their peak in the 1980s–1990s: Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes and Dolph Lundgren, usually released as direct to video. Lerner produced Rambo starring Sylvester Stallone, and Righteous Kill starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for Millennium Films and Emmett/Furla Films. He produced The Expendables, directed by Stallone. Other features Lerner has had a hand in include: End Game, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Woods; Edison, starring Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Justin Timberlake, 16 Blocks, The Black Dahlia, The Wicker Man, and even Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, starring Nicolas Cage. He is also listed as a producer in the thriller Trespass.