Leo Woodall’s CV from his days at London’s ArtsEd drama school looks more like that of an athlete than an actor.
He is ‘highly skilled’, it says, in basketball and football, and has expertise in badminton, cricket, darts, stage combat, swimming, table tennis, tennis and volleyball.
There is scant mention of his ability on stage or screen, apart from a few accent skills (American, Cockney and Estuary English) and a comment that he can sing ‘high baritone’ when necessary.
Leo, 27, the breakout star and exuberant heartthrob of the tear-jerking Netflix series One Day – which was watched by more than 15 million people in a fortnight – was a late convert to acting.
“Growing up, I wanted to be a gym teacher or a stuntman,” he recently admitted.
Yet Leo’s older brother Gabriel could see from an early age that he had a star quality that pulled him inexorably into the spotlight.
Mod and Woodall have built a ‘close bond’ and friendship since making the hit series
From an early age, Leo’s family could see that he had a star quality that pulled him inexorably into the spotlight. Pictured: with his brother Gabriel, far left, father Andrew, left, and sister Connie
Leo, 27, the breakout star and Raffish heartthrob from the tear-jerking Netflix series One Day – which has been watched by more than 15 million people in a fortnight
“From the moment my family and I saw Leo Goggles play The Penguin in the year two school play, we were all saying it,” jokes Gabriel, 31.
His father, Andrew, an actor who has had roles in Casualty and Grantchester, meanwhile watched his two sons re-enact scenes from The Matrix and Lord Of The Rings in the playground in Hammersmith, west London, where they grew up.
Ironically, 60-year-old Andrew tried to dissuade his son from following in his footsteps by telling him, “Whatever you do, don’t be an actor.”
But he’s not the only stage influence in Leo’s life. Mother Jane, 62, also went to drama school and became deputy director of Leo’s alma mater in Chiswick.
After her divorce from Leo’s father, she later married Alexander Morton, another actor, best known for his role in Monarch Of The Glen.
Uncle Ed Woodall is an actor, director and exercise coach, and Leo’s older sister Connie, 32, works in the industry as an agent.
The Woodalls are mainly concerned with show business. But nepotism has nothing to do with Leo’s meteoric rise.
Those who know him claim that he alone – with that ‘boy next door’ charm and piercing blue eyes, which have drawn comparisons to a young Brad Pitt – holds the secret to his success.
One Day stars Leo as troubled Dexter Mayhew, starring Ambika Mod as Emma Morley, the best friends from David Nicholls’ heartbreaking, best-selling 2009 novel.
Woodall appears opposite This Is Going To Hurt star Ambika Mod, 28, in One Day in his first leading role
Although Leo insists he’s nothing like Dexter (“ad***,” he proclaims), there are certain parallels: both come from wealthy families (Leo’s family is listed in The Peerage because his paternal grandmother was the daughter of a baron) and both are, in the words of the actor himself, ‘a bit spoiled’ – Leo because he is the youngest of three siblings.
As a child, recalls his proud stepsister Kerry Morton, a video maker and artist living in Essex, he was a “bouncy two-year-old” who she remembers “broke all the couches in the house (by bouncing on them).”
Leo credits Kerry with helping him perfect his Essex accent for Jack, the character he played alongside Tom Hollander in the dark comic series The White Lotus. He also met his girlfriend, American actress Meghann Fahy, on set.
‘I’m from West London, but there are certainly a lot of people I know from Essex. My stepsister is from Essex, so it was nice to say something about that,” he said in a recent interview.
According to his family, Leo was happy until he was eleven years old. His father was quiet and well-behaved and once described him as ‘a silent child’.
Leo and his brother Gabriel with their mother Jane, who also went to drama school where she met his father
However, high school proved to be a struggle, exposing him to bullies and violence. A classmate pinned him by his neck to a wall; another hit him on the chest. At a house party, someone once threatened to stab him if he didn’t hand him a pair of gloves.
The impact on Leo was dramatic. At home he became withdrawn and introverted, too eager to leave the house. At school, he says, he put on a character.
“I started shaving my eyebrows,” he said. ‘I shaved my head. I wore a hood all the time and changed the way I talked. It was some kind of survival instinct, I guess. To fit in. But I wasn’t nice. I lashed out. My mother was worried.’ Today, Leo credits “the dark years” with giving him material: perhaps the reason he is so often cast as an anxious, tormented young man.
Studying wasn’t his forte – “I didn’t really care about my grades, so it wasn’t like I could just go to university and study economics” – and after school he went to work in a bar, smoking weed, with no purpose or direction.
While watching Peaky Blinders late one night, the gangster drama starring Bafta winner Cillian Murphy, he realized his calling had been staring him in the face all along.
He enrolled at the Andrew Lloyd Webber-backed ArtsEd and graduated in 2019 with a BA in acting.
His first break was a small part in Holby City. Next came Cherry, the Russo brothers’ 2021 action thriller starring Spider-Man star Tom Holland.
He caught the attention of directors, who cast him in their spy series Citadel, alongside Hollywood big hits Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci.
English actor Leo Woodall, 27, has been compared to Brad Pitt after winning a legion of fans playing the charming Dexter Mayhew in Netflix hit One Day
Then came the Emmy-winning series The White Lotus.
On his father’s advice, he was actually binge-watching the first series while in a hotel room with Covid, when the email came from his agent asking him to audition for the second series in 2021, and did what he has since mentioned. ‘the best job I will ever have’.
He may be slightly biased: This is where he met Meghann, 33, a former Broadway actress from Massachusetts who appeared on Gossip Girl and Law & Order.
Leo auditioned for One Day while he was still filming The White Lotus. He hadn’t read the book, was just able to watch the panned 2011 film (starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess) and could barely walk because he slipped a disc.
At this stage he was still a total unknown, but he says he knew he had gotten the part when he saw the casting director in tears during one of his screen tests.
Woodall has slicked back his long hair during a number of red carpet appearances, just as 60-year-old Pitt used to do
It’s hard to get used to the attention his newfound fame brings. Today he lives in London with his brother, spends a lot of time with family and friends and, for the most part, avoids self-promotion.
As he puts it, “I think work is the reason we do this and… there’s some fun to be had. But other than that…I attach myself to the best people in my life and I don’t get so attached to the hoo-ha.”
He ended up watching The White Lotus with his brother, which contains several raunchy scenes — a mistake he wouldn’t make with One Day, which he watched alone, logged into the Netflix account he shares with his mother.
“I was so nervous about what my family would think of me as an actor,” he admits. ‘I’ve always felt a personal pressure to make it. And they have always been wonderful and supportive.”
So, with his stage family firmly behind him and trading in his blood, what’s next for this red-hot young star?
David Nicholls has compared him to some of Hollywood’s leading men: Robert Redford, Mark Ruffalo and Ryan Gosling. One reviewer described him as ‘a tornado of charisma’. He is even tipped as the next James Bond.
And Leo? When asked about his future, he replied, “Now that I’m being asked this question, I’ll probably have to come up with an answer.”
Perhaps fittingly for the boy who never wanted to be an actor, he has absolutely no idea.