Lester Balog (April 18, 1905 – February 1976) was a labor activist and founding member of the Workers' Film & Photo League.
A soccer player in Budapest, after immigrating to the U.S. with his family as a teen, he joined the Labor Sports Union in New York.
In 1926, at the age of 21, and one year from an engineering degree, Balog left Cooper Union in New York City to join the workers' movement.
He became a projectionist and showed "workers' films" to groups in theatres, union halls, community centers and other alternative settings.
In 1934, he was arrested in Tulare County, CA and jailed for showing films without a permit of the previous year's strikes to a group of farmworkers.