Leah Purcell truly does have an amazing story to tell, rising from the troubles of her childhood and family to become one of Australia’s most acclaimed indigenous actress’s, songwriters and even filmmakers.
Leah Purcell was born on the 14th of August 1970, in the small rural town of Murgon in Queensland. She was born to an indigenous mother and a white father, who through most of her life took no notice of her and didn’t publicly acknowledge her as his daughter. Leah Purcell had a very tough childhood, as if her own father not acknowledging her wasn’t enough she often had many nights where she would watch her mother drag herself through the door after spending the night at the pub.
Leah also didn’t have the luxuries that many other children had such as brand new clothing instead she had to wear thrift shop second hand clothing as well as hand- me - downs.
Despite the harsh realities of her home life, Leah never let this stop her in her ambitions for she always maintained a proactive and positive outlook. Leah filled her time making use of her fathers boxing training, to box with his students and her home life never stopped her Acting ambitions either and certainly at 18 years old becoming a mother you would surely think things would become a challenge for leah but they just weren’t Leah kept going forward with her acting pursuits and at age 20 after leaving her violent boyfriend and relocating to Brisbane she soon landed a debut singing position in a band that was playing in the Aboriginal musical Bran Nue Dae.
Following on from Bran Nue Dae, Leah wen on to star in Tv shows “Police Rescue” as well as “Fallen Angels” later she was casted in a major role in the Aussie film Lantana where she acted alongside an industry heavyweight Geoffrey Rush.
Roughly arount the same time in amidst of her rapidly accelrating career Leah was working on her own little masterpiece which was a one woman show called “Box The Pony” which focused on the