Leon Cooke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leon Cooke is one of the actors who played Billy Elliot in Billy Elliot the Musical. He 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. He has also appeared on The Paul o'Grady Show (with Liam Mower (billy), Travis Yates (billy) and Sir Elton John) Musicools and Any Dream Will Do?
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 left the cast of Billy Elliot on 2 June 2007. He was joined on stage on his final night by other past, present and future Billys. James Lomas, Corey Snide, Liam Mower, Travis Yates, Layton Williams and Olly Taylor all danced a scene from Expressing Yourself (a number from the show) after the curtain call.
Leon has become the longest running Billy Elliot so far, after completing 21 months,(200 shows as Billy). He has also stood in for the roles of 'small boy', 'tall boy/Thomas' and Michael during his time in the musical.
