Leo Drayton (he/him) is a queer writer from Cardiff who focuses his work on his identity and experiences as a trans man. His literary career began when he was a co-author on the novel ‘Robyn‘ by Iestyn Tyne as part of the young people’s series ‘Y Pump’ (2021) and he also collaborated on the play ‘Dy Enw Marw’(2024) by Elgan Rhys and it was performed at the National Theatre in London by Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, the first Welsh play to be performed there. Leo’s poetry has been included in ‘Curiadau‘(2023), the first LGBTQ+ Welsh anthology, in the book ‘Room/Ystafell/Phong’(2023) which connected queer writers from Wales and Vietnam, and reached the final round of the Roundhouse poetry slam in 2022. Leo was part of the 24-25 Representing Wales cohort with Literature Wales and hosts ‘Pride and Pen’ poetry workshops at the Queer Emporium in Cardiff. He has written a number of short films including Teth (2024), which opened the Iris film festival and was programmed at film festivals around the world including BFI Flare (London) and Frameline (San Francisco) and has won a number of awards such as Best LGBTQ+ Short NYC Downtown and Best Queer Short at Cal Film Festival. Last year he wrote his first full stage play, DYNOLWAITH, that opened in the Sherman theatre before going on tour across Wales and was featured in The Stage list of top 50 plays of 2025. Since then, he has worked as shadow director under Elan Issac for the cabaret show Marm’s Spotlight where he had the opportunity to experience the role of dramaturg during the devising process.
