Leonid Heifetz was born in 1934 in Minsk.

He graduated from GITIS (A.Popov and M.Knebel's course), his graduation play was ‘Highway to the Big Dipper’ by Y. Semenov (1963) staged at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, led by A.D.Popov. Knebel appreciated Leonid`s qualities such as ‘the ability of the director to organize the performers around him, a very clear decision of stage space, (...) the clarity and certainty of scenes, fixtures and intonations.’

In 1963-1970 Leonid worked at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, where he staged ‘My Poor Marat’ by Arbuzov (1965), ‘The Death of Ivan the Terrible’ by A. Tolstoy (1966), ‘The Watchmaker and Chicken’ by I.Kocherga (1969), ‘Uncle Vanya' by Anton Chekhov (1969). In 1971-1986 he worked at Maly Theater where he staged the following performances: ‘Krechinsky's Wedding’ by Sukhovo-Kobylin(1971), ‘Before Sunset’ by G. Hauptmann (1972), ‘Summer Walks’ by A. Salynsky(1974), ‘The Evening Light’ by Arbuzov (1975), ‘Fiesco`s Conspiracy at Genoa’ by Schiller (1977), ‘Jealous of Herself' by Tirso de Molina (1978), ‘King Lear’ by William Shakespeare (1979), ‘Retro' by A.Galin (1981), ‘Picture’ by D.Granin (1983), ‘The Zykovs’ by Gorky (1985).

In 1988-1994 Leonid was Artistic Director of the Central Theater of the Soviet Army. Among the productions were ‘Paul I’ by Merezhkovsky (1989, State Prize of the RSFSR, 1991), ‘God save the King!’ by S. Maugham (1990), ‘Masquerade’ by Mikhail Lermontov (1992).

Among the productions at other theaters are ’The Miracle Worker’ by William Gibson - Riga Young Spectator`s Theatre (1962), ‘From the evening till noon’ by V.Rozov - Petrozavodsk Finnish theatre (1970), ‘The Storm’ by Aleksander Ostrovsky - Belarusian Kupala Theater (1975), ‘East Stand’ by Galin (1984) - Sovremennik Theatre, ’Track’ by V.Arro (1987) – Moscow Art Theatre; ‘Running strangers’ by A. Kazantsev (1997) – Mossovet Theater, ‘Oginski Polonaise’ by N. Kolayda (1998) - Moscow Stanislavsky Drama Theater, ‘The Cherry Orchard’ by Chekhov (2000, Theater. Mossovet Theatre). Leonid works abroad: ‘The Cherry Orchard’ (1986 - Municipal Theatre of Istanbul, 1997 Playhouse Warsaw), ‘Uncle Vanya’ (1998 - Theatre of Quimperle, France 1999 - theater Burgas, Bulgaria), etc.

Heifetz has worked a lot at television interpretations of Russian classics (‘Rudin’ by Ivan Turgenev (1970), ‘The Precipice’ by Goncharov (1973), ‘The Cherry Orchard’ by Anton Chekhov (1976), ‘A Profitable position ‘by Aleksander Ostrovsky (1978).

Leonid Heyfetz teaches at GITIS and the Vakhtangov Theatre Academy.

At Mayakovsky Theatre Leonid Heifetz staged ‘A Doll's House’ by Ibsen (1999), ‘Synthesizer of Love’ by A.Ayckbourn (2002), ‘The Ride Down Mt. Morgan' by A. Miller (2005), ‘It is not All Shrovetide for the Cat’ by Ostrovsky (2010), ‘Price’ A. Miller.