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 the 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 1979 with N.Gogol's "Marriage" (Н. Гоголь «Женитьба») at the 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 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 (Manhattan Theater Club, The Public Theater, The American Place Theater and McArthur Theater in Princeton, NJ).

Starting in 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 Rybczyński. Among them was the 1990 Emmy award winning television film "Orchestra", in which Lev plays one of the main roles. He also played the leading role in Jennifer Montgomery's film «Troika», were Lev portrayed 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 was 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 St. Petersburg State Molodyozhny Theatre on Fontanka (Russia) (Russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный молодёжный театр на Фонтанке) directing "Blue Roses", («Синие розы») based on the play by Tennessee Williams "The Glass Menagerie".

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

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

In 2014, Lev Shekhtman is invited to stage the play "Antigone" by Jean Anouilh at the State Academic Theater in Vladimir, Russia. In 2017, he directs "Desire Under the Elms" by Eugene O'Neill, at the same theater. In the US, Mr. Shekhtman becomes a co-founder of the Theater of Russian Actors (TRACT NY), and in November of 2017, directs the play "Raskolnikov and Pawnbroker. Love Story" by Edward Reznik.