Eva-Maria Leonardou
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
A graduate both from college with a Bachelor of Business Administration
and the prestigious Drama School of Athens, Eva-Maria Leonardou is a
diversely educated artist. Six months after graduation she was
handpicked by Oscar nominated Writer/Director Nikos Foskolos to play
the lead in his television series, which after her arrival became the
number one rated television show in her country jumping from 28 to 50%
in the ratings. A year after she became the lead actress of Greece's
longest running prime time television show and raised the ratings from
18 to 40%. That same year she also performed at Herod's Roman Theater in front of 4000 people.
Giving up a flourishing career, Eva-Maria Leonardou came to the US to fulfill a lifelong dream to bring her talent to the American screen. Being fluent both in English and Greek, she is also versed in German.
Soon after her arrival, United States recognized her as an "Alien of Extraordinary Ability in Acting" and offered her permanent residence. She became a member of the Screen Actor's Guild and jumped into work right away. She co-starred in the movie "Rivals of Jesus" for National Geographic. Her first directing attempt, the short film "Work of Art", which she also executive-produced, wrote and starred in, was selected among 12,000 submissions and made it to the second round of Steven Spielberg's directing contest On the Lot. Eva-Maria Leonardou was also cast as the female lead in the feature film "On a Dark and Stormy Night", which won Best Feature Film at Chicago Horror Film Festival. She acted in a feature film with Christopher McDonald and wrote her second Feature Screenplay, "Incarnated", which had been in development until 2014, when Eva-Maria rediscovered the Christian Orthodox Faith, in which she has been baptized since the first months of her life. She started confessing and taking the Holy Communion every week. Within one and a half month her entire personality changed. As she said, Hollywood and the entire entertainment industry suddenly repulsed her and she found the True Meaning of Life. Within a couple of months, she left Los Angeles for good. In 2016 she became the Sunday School Teacher at a remote small village of Corinth in Greece and remained at that position until 2018.
Giving up a flourishing career, Eva-Maria Leonardou came to the US to fulfill a lifelong dream to bring her talent to the American screen. Being fluent both in English and Greek, she is also versed in German.
Soon after her arrival, United States recognized her as an "Alien of Extraordinary Ability in Acting" and offered her permanent residence. She became a member of the Screen Actor's Guild and jumped into work right away. She co-starred in the movie "Rivals of Jesus" for National Geographic. Her first directing attempt, the short film "Work of Art", which she also executive-produced, wrote and starred in, was selected among 12,000 submissions and made it to the second round of Steven Spielberg's directing contest On the Lot. Eva-Maria Leonardou was also cast as the female lead in the feature film "On a Dark and Stormy Night", which won Best Feature Film at Chicago Horror Film Festival. She acted in a feature film with Christopher McDonald and wrote her second Feature Screenplay, "Incarnated", which had been in development until 2014, when Eva-Maria rediscovered the Christian Orthodox Faith, in which she has been baptized since the first months of her life. She started confessing and taking the Holy Communion every week. Within one and a half month her entire personality changed. As she said, Hollywood and the entire entertainment industry suddenly repulsed her and she found the True Meaning of Life. Within a couple of months, she left Los Angeles for good. In 2016 she became the Sunday School Teacher at a remote small village of Corinth in Greece and remained at that position until 2018.
