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Leslee Dart is the founder of 42West and a longtime Hollywood talent publicist whose clients have included Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, and Keanu Reeves. She founded the firm in 2004, as The Dart Group, after leaving PMK, where she had risen to president. She served as co-CEO until March 2020 and is now a strategic advisor to Dolphin Entertainment, which has owned 42West since 2017.
Originally published June 2016. Updated October 14, 2026. Her current role was checked against Dolphin Entertainment's 2026 press releases and trade reporting.
Leslee Dart at a Glance
Firm
42West (founded 2004 as The Dart Group, renamed 2006); previously PMK and Rogers & Cowan
Years active
Four decades; PMK owner from 1985; 42West since 2004
Notable clients
Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Will Smith, Charlize Theron
Signature campaign or crisis
Founding 42West after leaving PMK in 2004, with much of her client list following her
Current status
Founder of 42West. Co-CEO until March 2020; now strategic advisor to Dolphin Entertainment and a member of its board
Who is Leslee Dart?
Leslee Dart was one of the three top people at PMK before her departure in 2004 to found The Dart Group, renamed 42West in 2006 after Allan Mayer joined the partnership and the firm expanded to Los Angeles. Many of her PMK clients followed her to the new firm. 42West has operated as a subsidiary of Dolphin Entertainment (NASDAQ: DLPN) since 2017. Before that acquisition, it was the largest independently-owned public relations firm in the entertainment industry. Dart served as co-CEO alongside Mayer and Amanda Lundberg. In March 2020 she moved into a senior advisory role at Dolphin and Lundberg became the firm's sole CEO.
What was Leslee Dart's career before 42West?
Leslee Dart began her career at Rogers & Cowan, where she was mentored by Warren Cowan and later by talent agent Sam Cohn, who introduced her to directors. At 28, she partnered with Pat Kingsley and Lois Smith to form PMK, the successor to Kingsley and Smith's earlier firm Pickwick/Maslansky/Koenigsberg. She moved from Los Angeles to New York in 1983 to head PMK's New York office and became an owner of the firm alongside Kingsley and Smith in 1985. Over a 23-year tenure, PMK became the leading public relations firm in entertainment, and Dart rose to become its president.
In November 2004, Kingsley fired Dart from the firm she had helped build, a move some press coverage at the time attributed less to performance than to Kingsley signaling she had no plans to hand over control. Dart had been coming off high-profile campaign wins for Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The dismissal became a major entertainment-industry story in its own right, and much of her client roster followed her out the door within months.
Who does Leslee Dart represent?
Leslee Dart's roster is one of the longest-tenured and most-covered in the industry: Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Ron Howard, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Jessica Lange, Keanu Reeves, Calvin Klein, Mike Nichols, Conan O'Brien, Halle Berry, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Rihanna, Kate Winslet, and Woody Allen have each been long-term clients, alongside filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Darren Aronofsky, Wes Anderson, and Scott Rudin. That breadth across actors, directors, and a fashion designer reflects decades of relationship continuity rather than a single-category specialty.
What films has Leslee Dart's team publicized?
Leslee Dart has directed publicity campaigns for more than 300 motion pictures over her career, including Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning No Country for Old Men, Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning The Departed, Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War, and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. That volume of awards-season and studio campaign work is a major reason 42West built out a dedicated Entertainment Marketing Division alongside its talent-representation business.
Leslee Dart's firm trained publicists who later left to found their own companies. Amanda Silverman began as a receptionist at PMK when Dart was president, followed Dart to the new firm in 2004, and in 2018 co-founded The Lede Company with two 42West colleagues. TheWrap described that departure as part of a line of 42West publicists going out on their own, and Dart, Amanda Lundberg and Allan Mayer said they understood the entrepreneurial urge.
What recognition has Leslee Dart received?
Leslee Dart received the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award for excellence in Public Relations in 2009. Crain's New York Business and PRWeek have both named her among the most influential figures in New York media and entertainment public relations, citing both her client roster and a reputation, unusual in the category, for being well-liked by clients, journalists, and competitors alike.
More Publicist Profiles
Leslee Dart's profile is part of The Publicist Behind, Everything-PR's series on the publicists who run Hollywood's biggest campaigns.
42West, which Dart founded in 2004 as The Dart Group after leaving PMK. The firm was renamed in 2006 and has been a Dolphin Entertainment subsidiary since 2017.
Who does Leslee Dart represent?
A long-tenured client roster including Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Keanu Reeves, Jessica Lange, Conan O'Brien, Halle Berry, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Rihanna, Kate Winslet, Calvin Klein, Mike Nichols, and Woody Allen.
Why did Leslee Dart leave PMK?
Dart did not leave voluntarily. Press coverage at the time reported that co-founder Pat Kingsley fired her in November 2004 after 23 years at the firm, where she had risen to president and part-owner. A substantial share of her client roster followed her to the new firm she launched immediately after.
Where did Leslee Dart work before PMK?
She began her career at Rogers & Cowan, mentored by Warren Cowan and talent agent Sam Cohn, before co-founding PMK at age 28 with Pat Kingsley and Lois Smith.
What films has Leslee Dart's team promoted?
More than 300 motion pictures over her career, including Midnight in Paris, No Country for Old Men, The Departed, Charlie Wilson's War, and There Will Be Blood.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
