Lev Shekhtman (born March 10, 1951) received his earliest theatrical education at the local children's theater in his native city of Chernivtsi (Ukraine), under the supervision of the Merited Artist of Ukraine V. V. Bespoletova (В.В. Бесполётова). In 1969, he enrolled in a Directing/Acting class at St. Petersburg State Academy for Theatre Arts (then Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography), in the class of Professor A. A. Muzil (А.А. Музиль). Upon graduation, he spent three years working as a Master Rank Director at Vologda State Drama Theater.

In 1978, Lev Shekhtman immigrated to the United States. His American Directorial debut came in a 1979 with N.Gogol's "Marriage" (Н.Гоголь «Женитьба») at Lexington Conservatory Theater (Lexington, NY). The same year he began teaching Acting and Directing at the New York City-based Sonya Moore's Stanislavski Studio of the Theatre. His New York City Directorial debut was a 1980 Playwrights Horizons production of «Heat of Re-Entry» by A. Tetenbaum. The same year, Shekhtman and his former students opened Theater in Action, based in Manhattan, which he ran and managed up until 1990. The theater contained two theater spaces. One functioned as a Main stage, and the other as a Theater school, where Shekhtman taught Acting and Directing. The company's repertoire included works by Anton Chekhov and Tennessee Williams, Albert Camus and Jack London, Nikolai Gogol and Berthold Brecht, modern American playwright Michael McGuire, and renowned Russian playwright Grigory Gorin. His Western Hemisphere premier of Gorin's "The House That Swift Built" opened with the presence of the author in 1986. Mr. Shekhtman in the course of his career also collaborated with several famous theater companies (The Manhattan Theater Club, The Public Theater, The American Place Theater and the McArthur Theater in Princeton, NJ).

Starting 1986, and for the following seven years L. Shekhtman worked as an actor in various films produced by the renowned Polish film and television Director and Oscar winner Zbigniew Rybczynski. Among them the 1990 Emmy award winner television film "Orchestra", in which Lev plays one of the main roles. He also played the leading role in the Jennifer Montgomery's film «Troika», were Lev portrait the role of the famous Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky. His other film appearances include: the role of Vladimir in «Indocumentados», and KGB-1 in the film "The Life Experience". He also featured in the Russian TV show "Citizen Boss-2." («Гражданин начальник-2»)

From 1995 to 2000, Shekhtman worked as a news writer and host for several Russian-language Television and Radio programs.

In 2006, he made his debut at The St. Petersburg State Molodyozhny Theatre on Fontanka (Russia) (Санкт-Петербургский Молодёжный театр на Фонтанке) directing "Blue Roses", («Синие розы») based on the play by Tennessee Williams "The Glass Menagerie".

In 2008, at the same theater he directed and adapted for stage a novel "Job" («Иов») by a famous Austrian writer Joseph Roth.

In 2012, Lev Shekhtman stages at The St. Petersburg State Molodyozhny Theatre on Fontanka his third production and his own adaptation, based on cycle of short stories by S. Dovlatov "Ours" («Наши»), and entitled "ABANAMAT!" («АБАНАМАТ!»).