#Alan leech professional

He appeared as Willi in the Queen and Peacock, at the Garter Lane Arts Centre. The Coen brothers were walking backstage, and me a naive 16-year-old.' 'I was the gentleman caller to Frances McDormand's Blanche Dubois.

#Alan leech professional

Leech's first professional stage role was in 1998 at the Gate in their production of A Streetcar Named Desire. He landed his first major roles in Cowboys & Angels and Man About Dog while at Trinity, and he has admitted that he did little schoolwork because he spent his time on auditions and acting. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master's Degree in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin, later noting this was a 'loophole' in his parents' stipulation that he earn a degree to fall back on if he failed to have success as an actor. He became set on acting after winning a small role in a 1998 production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Gate Theatre. Īfterwards, drama became the 'focal point' of Leech's teenage years, apart from his family life, and drama and family support helped him through his school years. He recalled how he immediately decided to become an actor when Peter McDonald told him how acting is a profession on the last night of the production's run. Leech became interested in acting at 11 when he was given the part of the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and found he loved being on stage. He is the third of four children he has an older brother, Greg, an older sister, Alli, and a younger brother, Simon. Leech was born in Killiney, County Dublin, to David Leech, the CEO of a computer systems company, and Kay Leech.