Jeremy Kagan began to follow cinema after watching Alexander Nevsky (1938) by Sergei Eisenstein in high school. After he graduated from Harvard University in 1967, he studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and was invited to attend the first class of the American Film Institute’s Conservatory program. While there, he directed The Love Song of Charles Faberman which won him the silver prize at the Malta Film Festival. After AFI, he began working as Director Frank Pierson’s assistant on the set of Nichols. It is here where he received his first opportunity to direct professionally.

Kagan has built an extensive career in both television and feature film. His credits include the box-office hits Heroes (1977), The Big Fix (1978) and The Chosen (1981). Other TV movie directing credits include Katherine (1975); Courage (1986); Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987); Descending Angel (1990); Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders (1974) and Crown Heights (2004). His most recent work includes Golda's Balcony (2007), the ten-part series The ACLU Freedom Files (2005), and the feature film Shot (2017).

Jeremy Kagan chairs the DGA’s Special Projects Committee and has served on the National Board of the DGA. He is the author of the book, Directors Close Up, based on the popular annual symposium he conducts with the nominees for the DGA Award in feature film directing. In 2004, Kagan received the Guild's Robert B. Aldrich Award for Extraordinary Service to the Guild.