Leonardo Santaiti

Leonardo Santaiti is an American Actor and Filmmaker, born first generation in East Meadow, New York. He learned English at the age of four and still retains fluency in both Spanish and Italian. Leonardo strongly identifies with his Italian-Argentine heritage, finding much of his artistic inspiration from large family dinners filled with plenty of food, songs, and stories. Santaiti began training in grade school and throughout his academic career he was involved in chorus, band, and theater. Although he starred in various stage productions and short films while receiving his undergrad, the immigrant mentality pushed him towards business studies, leading him to graduate with a BBA in International Business. Leonardo knew the corporate route was not the path for him, so he decided to take a detour and travel the world to learn more about life and himself. Upon his return, he landed his first feature film lead role in A Band of Rogues (2012), receiving a best ensemble award. His credits include; The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015); The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016); the action thriller Sleepless (2017); the motion capture films Madden NFL 18: Longshot (2017) and Madden NFL 19: Proving Grounds (2018); and the AFI Film Mi Amigo (2019). Leonardo has also discovered his way behind the camera, opening the doors to his production company Santitan Studios with the award winning short film Forgive Me Father (2015), putting his business degree to good use. Leonardo continues to find his filmmakers voice with his latest project Pony Up (2019), a short western that provokes the idea of what it means to be a man and the power of healing oneself. Santaiti calls Los Angeles home where he lives to create and inspire; he is grateful for all the wonderful experiences of life -- learning from the ebbs and living in the flow.