Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonardo Cecchi.
Hi Leonardo, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota from an Iowan mother and an Italian father, which was such a blessing because I feel I was raised with the cultural riches of both countries. From a very young age, I started showing a strong passion for the performing arts, likely stemmed from my mother who made a name for herself in the 70s on the hit Tv show The Young and The Restless. I began acting, singing and dancing in youth theatre productions at the age of 6 years old. My father found me a unique performing arts high school in Turin, Italy, which I immediately fell in love with. Here, I continued training in stage acting, diction, jazz dance and singing for musical theatre.
During my sophomore year, a casting director from Disney Italy went scouting at that high school and soon after, by some miracle, I was cast as the lead of the hit Disney tv show Alex&Co, my first onscreen role. That experience taught me so much about what it means to be a professional actor and definitely confirmed that acting was what I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life. While earning my high school diploma, I shot four seasons of Alex&Co, which aired in over 50 countries, and two movies with Disney, one of which got me a nomination for best original song in a feature film. During my senior year, I wrote my first book!! It was an autobiographical novel titled “Un Respiro Lungo e Via” (you guessed it, it’s in Italian, it means: One Deep Breath, and Let It Go). Given the success of this first novel, I was later asked to write a second novel titled “Manuale di Soppravvivenza per i Reduci del Primo Amore” (Recovery Manual for First Love Survivors), which I really hope to one day turn into a feature.
Once graduated in 2017, I finally moved to Los Angeles. That was my dream ever since I can remember. Here I quickly found representation with The Savage Agency, I started training at The Chubbuck Acting Studio and I began studying chemistry at Santa Monica College. I later got into UCLA with a 4.0 GPA but opted to finish that degree at a later date due to increasing work opportunities.
Since then, I appeared in 4 feature films, 3 TV series, one of which Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Stories, 1 theatrical production and one original short movie which I wrote, directed, and acted in! In this short movie, I played 7 different characters all at once, which ultimately earned me two nominations and one win for best actor at the LA-TopShorts film festival. You can also watch my most recent work in “A Christmas Mystery”, a Warner Bros. out now on HBOMax!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When is it ever a smooth road, am I right?! And at the same time, that’s the most satisfying way to achieve any goal. I grew up balancing a seven years custody battle that definitely left its mark from the age of 8 to 15. I believe that definitely made me mature earlier than others. So when I was blessed with my first acting job at 16 years old, I took that opportunity and gave it my all. Also moving to LA from Italy wasn’t the easiest choice. It meant starting from zero, leaving behind a place where, in theory, I had just “made it”. But I had the dream of pursuing a career in acting in Los Angeles ever since I can remember, so I couldn’t live with the thought of “what if?” and I of course went for it. It took a few years of auditions with no response, restless nights balancing acting classes and college assignments, but it was all worth it. I pretty much found out very early that just being “talented” wasn’t enough. LA had a bunch of talented and better-looking versions of myself to offer. I worked hard to stand out in an audition room, and it’s finally starting to pay off!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I do a bit of many things, but mainly, I am an Actor. I sing as well, dance, I entertain on social media and sometimes I even tutor in Italian, Math and Chemistry because I love teaching!!
I am known for my acting. I am very self-critical so it’s hard to say what work of mine I am most proud of, but if I had to choose, I’d pick two projects: “Alex&Co”, my first show as a lead and my latest performance “A Christmas Mystery”. The former because I had to handle it all at such a young age. The latter because to me, it represents all of the years of hard work it took to land another role as a lead. And even better, this time it happened in the notorious Hollywood!
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I have to admit I’m probably not the best at networking in general. With the years, I found a team of highly qualified and fierce people that help in this area and are great at finding me opportunities. These are my agents and my manager, to whom I couldn’t be more grateful for their hard work. It took a few tries, I had to hire and let some people go along the way because sometimes it’s not a match, but all you can do is give it your best shot and see if it works out.
On the note of networking in general I find it odd when someone hopes to meet the person that is going to give them their golden shot, mentor them to success, and make their career. I’d feel uncomfortable approaching someone with the intention of getting a “connection” out of that interaction. My best advice is when you find yourself surrounded by peers or professionals within your industry, be yourself and try to have a good time with whomever you’re talking to, and get to know them instead of trying to impress them. Let your work speak for itself; if you’re good in the performing arts, people will know.
And on that note, work on your craft as much as you can! You never stop learning, so focus on what you can improve. For me, going to acting class and creating my own shorts has helped a lot.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://entertainmentpro.net/leonardo-cecchi/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leonardodcecchi/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/leocecchi98
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LeonardoCecchiV
Image Credits
Cover picture, Photographer Fabian Di Corcia Standing picture in suit and sitting on chair B&W, photographer Alessandro Peruggi B&W 3/4th profile picture, photographer Fabian Di Corcia
