Raised in the East End of London, Leslie COULD have taken the traditional cockney path of Safe-Cracker, Chimney Sweep, or Soccer Hooligan, instead - he went into show-biz!

In his teens the "fates" intervened and steered him towards a life of Hollywood parties, tell-all interviews on Ophra, and the covers of supermarket tabloids….but how did that start?

Seriously: Leslie was lucky to become part of the then exploding fringe theatre, alternative publishing and comedy scene, when he co-wrote a novel at sixteen. Called THE GATES, it garnered national attention, even being used for study in schools. At a SLIGHTLY older age - he co-founded a writers-performance group inspired by the punk rock movement. Being young, inexperienced - and often drunk on shandy - they took their rave reviews for granted. Which unfortunately, encouraged Leslie to pursue theatre full-time. His parents have been crying ever since.

CALL OF THE WILD

But - Canada called (and not even ‘collect’)! There was an obscure link (His great-grandmother was a native of Quebec) And though he had a second novel published when he was 22 (GETTING THE EAGLE) he picked up his canoe - and moved to Vancouver….

Leslie’s first big theatre success here came with RED CHANNELS (with Jennifer Martin) a satire about the Fifties “Red Scare” that had ‘em lined up for blocks, and was one of the most successful shows to ever play the Edmonton and Vancouver Fringe Festivals. It was later invited to the World Stage Festival, Toronto.

His many writing credits include: the gender-bender horror-spoof IMPOSSIBLE ADVENTURES OF DARIUS DAVEREAUX, the black comedy INTRUDERS WILL BE SHOT and his autobiographical SINGING WITH RINGO (originally produced by CBC Radio)

More recently, Leslie’s stage adaptation of George Orwell’s COMING UP FOR AIR - in which he directed veteran actor Bernard Cuffling - played to rave reviews and ovations at '04 Festival, Belfry Theatre, Victoria, and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in '05 - winning two awards. More productions are slated for 07/08. His thriller MAN RADIO, was recently broadcast on CBC radio’s Sunday Showcase.

MUSICAL BENT

In contrast to the "cerebral" (?) Leslie has brought a number of highly successful stage musicals to fruition - which surprisingly - has nothing to do with fruit! These include: Head-Writer/Director of the award-winning girl-group musical ALL GROWN UP, the award-nominated WANG DANG DOODLE - THE HARLEM MUSICAL (from an idea conceived by Denis Simpson) and recently DEBT - THE MU$ICAL (co-created with Canadian singer-satirist/ CBC Host, Todd Butler) Soon to be on tour at a theatre near you!

COMEDY

Parallel to writing, Leslie has also spent a lot of time in the Canadian Comedy Scene, and sometimes he even talks about it - like NOW:

If you can remember that far back, he was one of the Roving Comedy Acts at Expo 86: The act: Vince Pirelli - the Cockney Con Man, selling “genuine, certified” memorabilia of the numerous Royal Weddings at the time “... replica of Sara Ferguson’s frock - with expandable hips, ’cos she does goes in and out a lot…!”

From there, Leslie went on to become one of the founding performers at the world-known Whistler Summer Festival and Vancouver International Comedy Festival. Some of those involved have gone on to become REALLY famous, Leslie…did quite nicely. What followed was a period of creating comedy shows for a veritable smorgasbord of corporations - not an easy task - but it did lead to that seminal moment of sharing a stage with his childhood hero - Brazilian soccer star PELE!

He’s still known to break out the grease-paint on occasion - (Leslie that is - NOT Pele…who probably runs a successful chain of restaurants in Rio De Janeiro) Most recently playing Mr Boo in Rise and Fall of Little Voice at Vancouver Playhouse (the part Jim Broadbent - not Michael Cain - played in the film!)

TELEVISION

In recent years Leslie has turned his talent to TV - much to TV’s horror - and found himself writing a lot for animation: contributing to the award-winning animation shows ‘YVON OF THE YUKON’, ‘WHAT ABOUT MIMI?’ ‘CLASS OF THE TITANS’ and ‘SOMETHING ELSE’ among others. With assistance from Telefilm Canada, he is currently at work on the screenplay ‘BLUE ANGEL BLUES’ about a young Ottawa girl's obsession with Marlene Dietrich in 1960.