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At Clark, Leon earned an undergraduate degree in political science and set his sights on attending law school in California. Once on the West Coast, however, this college theatre minor took center stage when he began working on television commercials. It wasn’t long before Leon was back in metro Atlanta and working with the Academy of Music & Theatre. At the Academy, he worked on theater projects during the day and spent evenings giving back to the local community through the arts. “We did legitimate theater during the day,” Leon said. “At night we would do things in prisons or schools or with homeless people and give them the money we made from the performances. Politics, community and the arts have always been a part of my life and that’s reflected in the projects I choose to do.” After almost a decade with the Academy of Music & Theatre, Leon was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. “I had applied to the Alliance Theatre around that time because there wasn’t any diversity there,” he said. “But, the committee for the National Endowment in New York wanted me to leave Atlanta.” Leon once again left Atlanta — this time to study in Baltimore, Md. and San Jose, Calif. While in San Jose, Leon got the call he had wanted before receiving the Endowment — an invitation to do a play at the Alliance. “I was invited by the Alliance to do a play called T-Bone and Weasel and, at the end of that year, I was offered the associate artistic director job,” he said. “Two years later, I was named artistic director. I had a great time. Atlanta gave me my start, and I could never say, ‘thank you’ enough. But, I was losing myself as an artist so I left Alliance thinking I was moving to New York City.” After an 11-year run as artistic director at the Alliance Theatre, Leon set his sights on the Big Apple. But Leon’s friend, Chris Manos, a wellknown producer, had other plans. “Chris encouraged me to start a theater company,” Leon said. “There was a need for a company that focused on issues of diversity, so Jane Bishop and I started that.” As founding artistic director of True Colors Theatre Company, Leon built what has become an Atlanta institution
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