He attended Choate Rosemary Hall and Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in History and Literature.
Lerner covered a variety of conflicts around the globe, including the war in Lebanon[1] and the fall of apartheid in South Africa.
Lerner co-wrote (with Daphna Kastner) the 1997 film French Exit, starring Jonathan Silverman and Mädchen Amick.
[1] Lerner was hired to write the $16 million budget 2012 Russian war film August Eighth for director Dzhanic Fayziev.
[4] Lerner’s next film, co-written with Oren Moverman, was the 2014 drama Love & Mercy, a biopic about the life and times of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys.