Producer Dana Eden has died at 52. Eden was found dead in her hotel room in Athens on Sunday during filming of the series, and her death was reported by local Greek news outlets.
"We are shocked and heartbroken by the untimely passing of our beloved friend and partner, Dana Eden," Dana and Shula Productions said in a statement. "Dana, a gifted creator with an international reputation, worked in the industry for more than 30 years, and for the past 18 years at Dana and Shula Productions won numerous awards, including an International Emmy for producing the international series 'Tehran.'"
Eden produced many television series, most notably "Tehran," which she co-produced with her partner Shula Spiegel and which is considered one of the most successful series in Israeli television. The two also led a multimillion-dollar deal with content giant Apple TV+.
Eden was born in September 1973 and studied at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. When she was 1, her father, Yoram Levy, founded a company in her name — Dana Productions. In 1996, she joined the company, and in 1997, produced her first series, "Chalomot Ne'urim." She later took over management of the company after her father fell ill with Parkinson’s disease.
In addition to "Tehran," which aired in Israel on the public broadcaster Kan and achieved major success in Israel and abroad, she produced the series "Mary Lou," "Not in Front of the Kids," "Mother’s Day," "Shakshouka," "Michael" (the television adaptation of the successful cult stage show), "Magpie," "She Has It" and others.
In a May 2023 interview on the podcast "Out of Frame," Eden and Spiegel described the complex path and difficult moments on the road to success — including the point at which they were forced to take on personal financial commitments to ensure that "Tehran," filmed in Greece, could move forward.
"In Greece, there is a law granting tax rebates to foreign productions. We were supposed to receive the money, but because of the coronavirus, they did not operate there for several months, and that did not allow us to receive it except with a six-month delay," they said at the time. "We were living in a movie during that period, left with cash-flow gaps of millions of shekels."
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Dana Eden (left) and the cast of the second season of 'Tehran'
(Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Spiegel and Eden believed in their project and decided to take a major risk. "I mortgaged my house to produce 'Tehran' and complete the filming. We are both crazy, irresponsibly optimistic and take insane risks. I hid it from my children — I did not want to tell them."
A few months later, the producing duo realized their gamble had paid off. After lengthy negotiations with Apple, a multimillion-dollar deal was signed for the acquisition of the series. "It was unbelievable," Eden said at the time. "It was a deal on a scale unheard of for Israeli series until then."
In November 2021, the series won the International Emmy Award for best drama at a ceremony in New York. "It gives hope for the future, that Israelis and Iranians will be able to walk together in Jerusalem and in Tehran as friends — and not as enemies," Eden said in her acceptance speech.
In June 2025, during the war between Israel and Iran, Eden left the country by boat to Cyprus to accompany her son, actor Gur Eden, during filming of a series in Italy directed by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
Filming for the fourth season of "Tehran" had been scheduled to begin shortly after October 7 but was postponed due to the war. The war with Iran meant that reality outpaced any written script.
"For two years now I have been in these upheavals of the parallel between reality and the series," she said at the time. "It is constantly in my head, since October 7. Now it's really directly against Iran and really an event of a real war. We write scripts, and the thinking is always whether events will overtake the series or the series will overtake events. We are constantly thinking about scenarios. In the end, it is an enjoyable thriller series, and you want to preserve it as such."