DAMIEN LEAKE
Frank Custer
Damien Leake (born August 12, 1952) is one of the most versatile performers on the American theater scene. He has performed as an actor/ singer/ dancer/ director/ musician/ composer/ musical director/ vocal arranger/ playwright/ stage fight choreographer and ventriloquist at various points in his 50-year career. As an actor he has appeared on Broadway in: The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Whose Life is it Anyway? and August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Off Broadway in: Black Eagles, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet. He has performed in regional theaters throughout the country in a variety of classical, contemporary, dramatic and comedic roles, including Othello for Portland Stage and Prospero in The Tempest for PCPA.
On Television he has appeared as Dr. Kenneth Clark in Separate but Equal, and the daytime dramas As the World Turns, General Hospital, and The Bold and the Beautiful. Also in Married with Children, Ghost Whisperer, The Cosby Show, New York Undercover, Ask Harriet, Family Law, Boston Legal, Resurrection Boulevard, Boomtown, Numbers, Nip/Tuck, CSI Miami, The West Wing, Without a Trace, Eleventh Hour, Prison Break, Men of a Certain Age, The Mentalist, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Good Girls and NCIS. His film credits include Serpico, Sea of Love, Born on the 4th of July, He Said She Said, The Cotton Club, Apocalypse Now, The Devil’s Own, Mighty Joe Young, 88 Minutes, The Experiment, The Great Debaters, and Breaking In. Also included is one of his most intense and rewarding experiences as a film actor, playing Frank Custer the independent film The Killing Floor.
A self-taught musician/composer, his first musical Child of the Sun won the Richard Rodgers Production Award. His other compositions are Living in the Rhythm Section and Drip by Drip by Leake. He has authored the dramatic plays Till Sundown Tomorrow (Stories My Father Told Me) and We Boys. He is currently working on a new musical The Ghost of Johnny Hero. He is also a world class Master’s Track and Field athlete, competing in the 100 and 200 meters as well as long jump with multiple national championships and a World Record to his credit. And is most proud of the young athletes he coaches in his spare time.