Leo has been acting professionally for several years, with his debut performance as #7 in Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte in 2019 garnering praise from local critics. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the BFA Acting Conservatory at SUNY Purchase College in Spring of 2024, where he studied under the tutelage of established industry professionals like Trazana Beverley, A. Dean Irby, Leon Addison Brown, Rosalyn Coleman Williams, and Susan Shopmaker. During his time at Purchase, Leo also had the immense privilege of working alongside accredited directors such as James Dean Palmer, Raz Golden, Universes’ Steven Sapp, and The Theatre of Others’ Dr. Budi Miller.
Most recently, Leo collaborated with his partner Ace Meyer, Bay Area screenwriter and director Jay Shepherd, and cinematographer Ruth Finch on The Rise and Fall of Starboy, an award-winning indie short that interrogates the transgender experience through the lens of a “20-something-year-old nobody” who risks everything to become a star. In addition to starring in the film, Leo co-wrote the script with Shepherd, Finch, and Meyer.
Earlier last year, Leo was seen onstage as Sticky Nicky in Who Killed Simon Braggart?, an immersive, queer whodunit set in 1940s Hollywood and the inaugural production of in-house theatre troupe Muse of Fire at the 418 Project in Santa Cruz, California.
In addition to acting, Leo has worked as a theatrical educator across North Carolina, New York, and California, most notably with Matthews Playhouse of the Performing Arts in North Carolina, Treasure Trunk Theatre in Brooklyn, and Mythik Camps in San Francisco. He is proudly neurodivergent, queer, and transgender, and holds a particular passion for uplifting the stories of historically marginalized communities.