Leonydus Johnson

Matthew Leonydus Johnson was born and raised in Ironton, Ohio, the son of Aaron and Bridget Johnson. Growing up, he was more into sports than he was the arts, playing baseball from little league through high school and even up to the college level at the University of Rio Grande. He later pursued a career in music as a hip-hop artist under the moniker of "Gyfted", releasing an album in 2005 entitled "Best Kept Secret" to generally positive reviews. Although he loved writing and telling stories and even at the age of 13, he wrote and directed a few silly films with a toy video camera, he did not pursue any kind of theatre or film until much later. His love for acting was late blooming, occurring in 2008 at the age of 24, when he was invited to write a hip-hop musical version of 'Cinderella' for the Columbus Children's Theatre in Columbus, OH in 2009, which sold out its entire 13 show run. He would go on to write a hip-hop version of the Ugly Duckling for the Columbus Children's Theatre the following year in 2010. He also was hired as a theatre director for Alexander High School in Albany, Ohio the same year. He decided to start his own theatre company with a friend called Scene One Theatre (which would eventually become Misfits Theatre) in Athens, OH, where he directed many musical productions. In 2014, he decided to move from behind the scenes and begin acting, working with multiple theatre companies in the region, playing roles such as Jacob Marley in 'A Christmas Carol', Donkey in 'Shrek', Lumiere in 'Beauty and the Beast', Richard Henry Lee in '1776', Neleus in 'Mary Poppins', and 'Sam Craig' in Our Town. In 2016, he began working in film/television, working on student films at Ohio University and Point Park University, several indie feature films and short films, and eventually began making trips to New York in 2017 to work on Investigation Discovery shows including 'Shattered', "The Perfect Murder', 'Evil Lives Here', and "Diabolical'. When he's not acting or directing, Leonydus likes to write, play piano, play video games, and spend time with his wife and children