- Born
- Height5′ 6½″ (1.69 m)
- Leigh Whannell grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where, at the age of four, he developed an obsession with telling stories. Whether it be through acting, writing or filmmaking, his primary love was getting a reaction from an audience. In 1995, at the age of 18, he was accepted into the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's prestigious Media Arts course, where he met fellow filmmaker James Wan. In his second year of college, he landed the role of "film guy" on a Saturday morning TV show aimed at teens called Recovery (1996). Filmed totally live in the studio and hosted by actual teenagers, the ground-breaking show was hugely popular down under and was the first to bring "alternative culture" to Australia's TV screens, featuring live performances from bands like Sonic Youth, Weezer, Public Enemy, Ben Harper, Pulp and hundreds more. Hosting the film component of the show, Leigh was lucky enough to interview people like Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, Russell Crowe, George Clooney, and eventually went on the host the show in 1999. After graduating from college, Leigh found himself working more and more as a "host" or "presenter" on Australian TV - all the while hatching a plan with James Wan to finally fulfill his dream of making a film. Small acting roles cropped up from time to time (including one in The Matrix Reloaded (2003), which Leigh has said was "the most fun I've ever had in my life") and, along with those, some frustrating near-misses (and not so near-misses: like his cringe-inducing audition for "Lord Of The Rings", in which he paid $90 to have "hobbit ears" grafted onto his head, turning up at the casting office dressed as a hobbit - needless to say he didn't get the role). However, it was missing out on a role in Alex Proyas Australian film Garage Days (2002) that finally broke the camel's back. He called Wan and told him that if they wanted to get a film made, they would have to pay for it themselves. Saw (2004) was born. After nine months of writing, Leigh had written the screenplay for what he thought would be a self-financed, "Blair Witch"-style feature, with him starring and James directing. The script gained so much attention that soon enough, they were shopping it around Hollywood....and the rest is history.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Corbett Tuck
- SpouseCorbett Tuck(October 10, 2009 - present) (3 children)
- ChildrenJones GreyWren River
- Often works with James Wan
- To help sell his concept for the jigsaw killer thriller Saw (2004), he shot a scene in which he appears to be ensnared in a bear trap. There were no special effects involved; he actually had to place the teeth of the rusty bear trap in his mouth to make it seem real.
- Member of the unofficial "Splat Pack," a term coined by film historian Alan Jones in Total Film magazine for the modern wave of directors making brutally violent horror films. The other "Splat Pack" members are Alexandre Aja, Darren Lynn Bousman, Neil Marshall, Greg McLean, Eli Roth, James Wan, and Rob Zombie.
- Met James Wan at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
- Became a father for the second time to twins Jones Grey and Wren River on July 22nd 2017.
- Welcomed a daughter, named Sabine Silver, with wife Corbett Tuck in March 2013.
- I wouldn't say that was entirely non-deliberate. I do think men can be especially selfish, very focused on what they're doing. Women often the mother character in the film cares for the child more than she cares for herself, and just from my own point of view, I felt that the men in the film are more the type of people Jigsaw would have a major problem with. [on stereotypical roles for men and women in films and how it applied to his 'Saw']
- I've been writing stories since I was a kid, and James and I had been talking about wanting to make a film for many years before this. Even though we wrote the film as a means to an end, so that James would have something to direct and I could have something to act in, it wasn't a slough for me to get through it because I love writing. It took me a long time only because I felt like it was all or nothing, that this script had to be good enough to compete at a world level. We didn't want it to be something that was something that was pretty good for a couple of guys from Melbourne. We wanted it to be a good film on a par with other independent films like Run, Lola, Run and Pi and Memento, these cool thrillers that had ticking-clock gimmicks to them. They're the type of films we wanted to be up there with. [on 'Saw']
- All of a sudden, I'm on set and I'm like, "Oh yeah, I have to spend this whole film wet." Someone should have really told me but I can't say that because I wrote it.
- We've got three drops of convict blood in us, because we are from Australia. We are used to oppression.
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