Leon Preston Robinson, better known simply as Leon, is an American actor who is best known for his performances as J.T. Matthews in the musical/drama film The Five Heartbeats, Derice Bannock in the hit sport/comedy film Cool Runnings and for portraying Shep in the drama/crime basketball film Above the Rim.

LEON BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Leon was born on March 8, 1962 (Leon age: 61) in New York City. His parents are Leon Preston Robinson III and Antionette Robinson.

For high school, Leon attended Mount Saint Michael Academy. For college, he went to Loyola Marymount University on a basketball scholarship, where he was very active playing sports. He quickly developed a passion for the creative arts field, and decided to pursue acting as a full-time career after school. He later went on to attend Orange Coast College for his further education.

LEON BIOGRAPHY: CAREER

In an exclusive with uInterview, Leon reflects upon his first experience acting and what made him decide to pursue it as a profession.

“Wow. It goes back to something in grammar school before I went to this all-boys prep academy,” Leon recalled. “But mainly, as far as acting as me studying acting, it happened when I was at Loyola Marymount University on a basketball scholarship. A graduate film student chased me down campus and begged me to be in his movie, and I was like, ‘I think there’s some people in the theater arts department who would be dying to be in your movie. Why me?’ He says, ‘There’s something about you. I’ve been watching you. I just think that you’re going to be in movies one day, and I want to be the first one to do it’. I was like, ‘Really? All right.’ And so I did it,” Leon proclaimed. “It was the movie called The Photographer, and I had an experience that we all have in our lives. You ever sit down and have lunch with someone, or dinner, or whatever, or even an interview, and you feel like you’ve known that person so much longer than the time you spent with them? That’s the way I felt on the set. I was like, I don’t even feel like this is my first time. This is weird. So, I changed my major, became a drama major, studied acting, took it from there.” 

Leon was then asked what it felt like to get that first big break.

“I don’t know if I ever really had that first big break,” Leon confessed. “Like, I would just get roles. I just started getting roles and even when I didn’t even have a role, it wound up becoming a role, you know? There were always signs saying that you’re supposed to be here, you’re supposed to be here.”

Moving on to the newly released action/crime film A Day to Die, Leon discussed what it was like working with his fellow crew members.

“Well, working with them as a collective, especially Kevin [Dillon] and Frank [Grillo], I know them both from New York,” Leon declared. “Kevin, I’ve known his family forever because me and his brother Matt [Dillon] were best friends for years. And so, it was just fun just to be on the set with people that you’ve known for so long. And we’re all actors doing our things. We don’t get to work with each other that often, so it’s great. And yeah, it’s great. I think when you get into those really intense scenes, and I’m locked into my character and they’re locked into theirs, and I think that when you work with actors that you know and you work with actors that you respect, it’s kind of like being at point guard or Michael Jordan, like you’re not worried about how the rest of the game is going to go. You know you can just take care of yourself and the scene is going to turn out good because they’re all locked in. They’re going to do their thing as well.” 

When asked about the more challenging scenes to shoot in the film, here is what Leon had to say:

“I didn’t really have much of a challenge about how things are going to turn out because I don’t really think that way when I’m acting. I’m pretty locked in on my character and making sure that I’m breathing life into my character. What I can say (is) that working in Jackson, Mississippi, was interesting, and I think that there were people on the crew, they had a learning curve that they had to learn,” Leon remarked. “And I think what’s great about it is that they did learn and they did get the job done, and that’s what’s great. And so what I remember most is because I think sometimes when we work on studio films and network series and stuff, we’re used to every single thing just being so buttoned up and every single department, you know, just everything’s on point. And I think that sometimes when you’re making independent films, especially in places outside of New York and L.A., you know, you have challenges sometimes. And it’s up to you to overcome those challenges. I think that’s what makes the indie film world so great.”

LEON BIOGRAPHY: PERSONAL LIFE

Leon currently lives in New York City with his wife Kirbie Wallace. He has one daughter, Noelle Robinson, with his ex-girlfriend Cynthia Bailey.

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