Gideon Raff

Gidi Raff
Gideon Raff in 2014
Born	Gideon Raff 1973 (age 43–44) Jerusalem
Occupation	Director, screenwriter, writer
Notable awards	Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama 2012 Homeland Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series 2012 Homeland: "Pilot" shared with Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon
Partner	Udi Peleg

Gideon "Gidi" Raff (Hebrew: גדעון "גידי" רף‎‎; born 1973) is an Israeli film and television director, screenwriter, and writer. He is best known for the award-winning 2010 Israeli television drama series Prisoners of War (which he created, wrote and directed) and its acclaimed US adaptation, Homeland (for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012).

Raff was born in Jerusalem. His father is Eitan Raff, who served as Accountant General in the Israeli Ministry of Finance and was Chairman of the Board of Bank Leumi.

From the ages of two to six he lived in Washington, D.C., where his father was Economic Adviser to the Israeli Embassy.

After serving three years as a paratrooper in the Israeli army, he completed a degree in Film at Tel Aviv University.

Raff then worked in IT. For a year or so, during the dot-com bubble, he was responsible for content at a start-up, and wrote a weekly column in Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv about his experiences. The columns were collected into a book, Diary of a Start-Upper On The Way To The Maka (Exit) (Keter, 2001).

Having moved to Los Angeles, in 2003 Raff completed a graduate degree in directing at the American Film Institute. His graduation short film The Babysitter premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.