A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Leon Lopez

Leon Lopez was born in Toxteth on the 30th of August 1979 to a Liverpool mother of Spanish descent and a Jamaican father. As an actor, writer, singer and director he started his career from his mum's living room before studying at LIPA ( Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts ). Leon told the Liverpool Echo, " I first started acting in my mum's living room, miming and playing along to my favourite films as a child. When I was 15 I was asked to be an extra in a play at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. I'd never even been to a drama class, but that gave me the bug. I realised this was what I wanted to do with my life." His first TV role was as Jerome Johnson in Brookside (1999-2002) and following 211 episodes he made appearances in 'Merseybeat' (2004), 'The Bill' (2005) before a longer role in 20 episodes of the 'Hollyoaks' spin off, 'In the City' (2006).

Sunetra Sarker as Nisha Batra and Leon as Jerome Johnson (2001)

 

This he describes as his favourite TV role, where he played the character Tank Top. "I got to do the most bonkers things with such an amazing cast and crew." With only small TV parts following, his theatre work saw him tour the UK as 'The Childcatcher' in a run of 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and appear in numerous pantos. In Autumn 2007, he played the role of Collins in the West End revival of the rock opera 'Rent' which he has said was his favourite role on stage. This was a play he saw on Broadway when he was just coming to terms with his own sexuality and it changed his life. On the 13th of August 2008, he appeared in a limited run of 'Piaf' at the Donmar Warehouse and then went on to appear at The Royal Court Theatre, London in the role of Deity in 'Wig Out!', directed by Dominic Cooke which ran from November 2008 to January 2009. Then in May 2009 he took on the role of Michael in 'Tick, Tick... Boom!', at The Duchess Theatre in London's West End. Autumn 2009 saw him as part of the grand relaunch of Derby Playhouse Theatre, appearing in the rock musical 'The Pro's, Con's and a Screw'. In February 2010 he appeared opposite Leslie Caron in Stephen Sondheim's musical 'A Little Night Music' at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris, playing the role of Frid. Then he was selected to perform as Brit in the second national tour of Ben Elton and 'Queen's smash hit rock musical 'We Will Rock You'.
Leon then set up his production company Brown Boy Productions in 2014 and as a filmmaker/producer burnt up the U.K. film scene following its debut film 'Soft Lad', premiering at The East End Film Festival in 2015 and gained distribution through Peccadillo Pictures. The release of this film led to other jobs and he went on to study for a degree in Film Making at the University of East London. His documentary 'Let’s Talk About Gay Sex and Drugs' premiered at BFI Flare Festival in 2016, and his short, 'Crossroad', competed for the Iris Prize 2016 and was selected for distribution by Peccadillo as part of their 'Boys on Film' series. At the 2018 Film Series at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, he presented the New York City premiere of 'Almost Saw the Sunshine', which came about as part of his master’s degree in film at University of East London. 'Out Of Time', was Leon’s second feature film, also directed in 2018. That helped him to get work on the award winning soap operas like 'Hollyoaks', 'Emmerdale' and 'Coronation Street', directing over 60 episodes of television in total.

Directing the world's longest running Soap - Coronation Street

 

Before that, in 2015, he had starred alongside sir Ben Kingsley in Spike TV's mini series, Tut', where he played the role of Sete. In 2016 he was inundated with messages of support after landing a part in 'EastEnders' for 7 episodes with a short guest role as Linford, one of Claudette Hubbard's foster sons.

He has TV projects he wants to develop and says "it’s just a case of finding investment". He describes himself as a "dramatic director" and he lives for the drama. Nowadays he works mainly in television and recently finished filming the Christmas special of ‘Death in Paradise’ for the BBC which will air in 2024. He has also worked on Red Planets newest TV venture 'Beyond Paradise' and is set to direct the first block of Season 3 in 2024. Leon also recently completed his second episode of ITV's world wide smash hit feature length crime drama, 'Midsomer Murders' and also has a number of film projects in development that he hope to start in 2025. As well as all this he is also a singer/songwriter, showcasing his talent on 'Soapstar Superstar' and his debut album 'Moving On' was released in 2010, and he continues to write music for his films.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/11/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-alex.html