Biography

Leone grew up surrounded by his mother’s paintings and his father’s films, recreating his favorite movie scenes with his first handycam. In high school, he traded poetry essays for short films and even convinced his teachers to let him shoot a horror short overnight at school.

A graduate of the National Film Conservatory in Lisbon, he directed experimental shorts screened at Fantasporto and Festival Microfilmes de Lisboa, before moving into the world of advertising, where he started as an assistant director and quickly refined his skills in directing, cinematography and editing. His first campaign, Amor, a poignant piece on Alzheimer’s disease, received international recognition and was featured by Shots. Since then, he directed campaigns for brands such as CR7 Fragrances, Binance, NOS, Betclic, Luso and photographed for Super Bock, Continente, Novobanco and IKEA.

His first TV limited series, Finisterra, co-written and co-directed with Guilherme Branquinho. Co-produced by Take It Easy (Portugal), Wild Fang Films (Luxembourg) and Pixable Studios (Germany), with support from RTP and the Portuguese Film Institute, the series had its preview at MOTELX before airing on RTP1 and RTP Play in Portugal, as well as on RTL Luxembourg. It won Netflix and the Portuguese Film Institute’s Writing and Script Development contest and was awarded Most Promising Project at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.

He’s now represented by Playground, expanding his work in both commercial and narrative projects.
- IMDb mini biography by: Leone Niel