Leon Cooke

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Leon Cooke is one of the actors who play Billy Elliot in Billy Elliot the Musical. He has joined the musical on 19 September 2005 replacing James Lomas and emerged from the Billy Elliot Academy where he started rehearsals in February. He is from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire and has 7 siblings (Tara, Zena, Cassandra, Damian, Anastasia, Valentina and Dmitri).

Leon is a Mid-Associate with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and last year was nominated for the IDTA, Ken Dodd Tap Award. His ambition is to be as good as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Angel Corella from The American Ballet Theatre.

BBC's Blue Peter followed Leon Cooke for a whole day on 18 November 2005, the material they shot aired December 9 the same year.

Leon has also appeared on Ready Steady Cook (against George Maguire who also played Billy Elliot, Leon lost the episode) and has presented an award at the British Book Awards.

Leon started dancing at the age of two, encouraged by his father who is a dance teacher. He attends The Marilyn Jones Dance Centre where he learns ballet, tap, gymnastics, theatrecraft, song and dance and streetdance.

Leon will leave the cast of Billy Elliot on June 2nd 2007