| Lawrence Leung | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1971 Melbourne, Victoria |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Occupation | Comedian, writer |
| Known for | Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure Lawrence Leung's Unbelievable |
| Website | |
| http://www.lawrenceleung.com/ | |
Lawrence Leung (born 1971) is an Australian comedian, writer and director from Melbourne, Victoria. He is best known for his television series Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure based on his one man shows that tell stories around his obsessions such as breakdancing, ghosts, the Rubik's Cube and his family. The son of Leo and Doris Leung, he grew up in Box Hill, Melbourne.
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Leung has performed in shows in London's West End, at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, as well as having toured Australia extensively. In 2001, his show Sucker won Best Solo Show at the Melbourne Fringe Festival,[1] while in 2007, his show 'Lawrence Leung Learns to Breakdance' won the Age Critic's Award for best Australian show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival[2] and the Best Local (Australian) Show at the 2008 Sydney Comedy Festival.[3] His other shows included Skeptic[4], The Marvellous Misadventures of Puzzle Boy[5] and Lawrence Leung Wants A Jetpack[6]. He has also written pranks for the satirical comedy TV show The Chaser's War on Everything.[7]
Lawrence often performs with Andrew McClelland; the pair have been friends since school and started in comedy together in an improvised comedy group called the Improbables,[8] which also featured other young Melbourne comedians including Nick Caddaye (from sketch troupe Anarchist Guild Social Committee), Adam McKenzie (from comedy trio The Hounds) and UK-based comic Yianni Agislaou. Their most recent collaboration was The Paradoxical Adventures of Lawrence Leung and Andrew McClelland: Time Ninjas,[9] which both parodied their usual comedy styles and explores their youth together. Time Ninjas won the Jury Award at the 2009 Sydney Comedy Festival.[10]
Lawrence Leung was the writer and star of Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure, which aired on ABC1 and ABC2 in 2009. The show revolves around Leung attempting to re-live childhood ambitions and is described as "an imaginative documentary/comedy/adventure series where the innocence of childhood ambition clashes with the realities of adulthood, resulting in unexpected consequences that are hair-raising, heart-warming and hilarious."[11] In April, he released a soundtrack EP from the show called Choose Your Own Adventure: Music from the ABC TV Series, consisting of six tracks, mostly from the 'Be a Rock Star' and 'Find Love' episodes. The 2-disc complete series DVD of Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure was released on 7 May 2009.[12] Extras include deleted scenes, music videos and a 57min tutorial taught by Lawrence Leung entitled "How To Solve The Rubik's Cube".
The series was nominated for a 2009 AFI Award (Australian Film Institute) in the category of Best Television Comedy.
Lawrence returns to ABC1 in 2011 with a new series titled Lawrence Leung's Unbelievable.[13]
Lawrence has been a regular guest on breakfast radio (3RRR Breakfasters) and appeared on Tony Martin & Ed Kavalee's Get This (3MMM) and Loose Ends (BBC).
He also co-hosted the Sunday morning breakfast show on Melbourne’s FOX Fm in 2005 and 2006 with Courteney Hocking and Andrew McClelland.
Lawrence wrote and presented regular off-beat mini-documentaries for Steve “The Sandman” Abbott’s variety show In Siberia Tonight (SBS TV, 2004).
He was a writer of pranks for two seasons of ABC TV’s The Chaser's War On Everything and has appeared on a variety of television shows including The Today Show (Nine Network), Stand Up Australia (The Comedy Channel), The Edinburgh Show (BBC2), Open House (RTÉ).
On 4 April 2009, Leung was guest programmer on ABC1's popular and long running overnight music video show Rage.[14]
On 26 May 2009, Leung appeared as a guest on Australian Game Show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation.
Leung's GenX team won episode 1.4 of Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. The trophy Shaun Micallef awarded him was Micaleff's own Silver Logie.
Leung has appeared in an uncredited role on The Chaser's War on Everything inside a purple Teletubby costume. Video clip
Lawrence Leung has a Star Wars character named after him (Lar Le'ung, a Jedi Knight) in the latest Star Wars comic book series Star Wars: Invasion (2009), written by Tom Taylor and illustrated by Colin Wilson.[15]
He also won GQ (Australia) Magazine's Man of the Year 2009,[16] in the category of Comedic Talent of the Year.