In 1978, Lehmann graduated from Columbia University.
Lehmann's first job in the film industry was answering phones at Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope film company. Later he supervised cameras on films that included 1983's The Outsiders. Lehmann attended film school at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and graduated in 1985. While at USC he made a student film, Beaver Gets a Boner, the title of which he believes helped get the attention of film executives who would later hire him.
Lehmann directed his first television commercial through the Leo Burnett Company in June 1996 for McDonald's. Lehmann also directs for television, and has worked on the short lived HBO comedy series The Comeback and NBC's The West Wing. Lehmann has guest directed on The Larry Sanders Show, Watching Ellie and Century City. Recently, Lehmann has directed episodes of HBO dramas, Big Love and True Blood, as well as Showtime's Californication and White Famous, the Amazon.com series Betas, and FX's American Horror Story and Snowfall.
