Lee Livingston was born in Los Angeles, California, and spent his early childhood in New York City and most of his school years in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Claremont (McKenna) College in 1965 with a BA in Literature and finally completed his MFA in Theatre Arts from UCLA in 2005. During the Mad Men years of the 70s, he was a Vice President/Creative Director at Grey Advertising in Los Angeles. From 1980 until 2021, he ran his own commercial film production company in Los Angeles. He is now retired and lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia, with his wife.