The Writers of Wales Database

CHARLES, LEON

16 Clive Place, Barry Island, Vale of Glamorgan. CF62 5XB
Tel: 07837 048583
For event booking details click here

Leon Charles was born in the mid fifties in the Bute town area of Cardiff, which is better known as Tiger Bay. He served his apprenticeship as a toolmaker, and also has a City & Guilds qualification in Media Studies. He worked as a touring theatre technician with the Welsh National Opera during the early 1980s, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

He is currently self-employed and carries out his education workshops ‘Beyond the Barrage', involving ‘motivation, education and innovation in harmony’ in schools across Wales, preparing pupils to practise and perform their work at such events as the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre and the Ty Newydd Festival. He has recently been working with pupils from London, Bristol and Devon on a series of creative writing workshops at Tregginnis Farm in West Wales which produced rap, poetry and prose for inclusion in an anthology that the pupils are working on. Leon has enjoyed being a member of the Welsh Academi’s ‘Writers on Tour’ scheme for many years, and amongst his hobbies he lists writing prose, plays and poetry as well as songs and screen plays, which he often turns into films and documentaries.

His current projects include pre-publication work on a children’s book and DVD called 'Bike 2: The Future in Wales', which is to be used in conjunction with Leon’s latest workshops that aim to assist pupils who are under achieving in school by making the learning process much more fun and inclusive. This is achieved through Leon using his life enhancing experiences of growing up in one of Britain's oldest multi-ethnic communities, Tiger Bay, to spice up and motivate the pupils during his workshops. Leon is also preparing his second exhibition in the old library on the Hayes in the heart of our great city, about the people and their impact on the landscape of Cardiff.