Leon Lučev was born in Šibenik, Croatia in 1970. He finished primary school and high school in Šibenik. In 1991 he joined the homeland war as a member of the Croatian army. In 1992 he enrolled in the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences in Zagreb, and a year later the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. During his studies in 1994, he shot his first feature film “Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku”(How the war started on my island) with director Vinko Brešan, which became a big hit. While studying, he worked with Lukas Nola, Zvonimir Jurić and Ognjen Sviličić in their early films. In 1997, after graduation from the Academy of Dramatic Art, he joined the permanent cast of the ITD Theatre. During that period (1997 – 2003) he worked with top theatre directors: Tomi Janežić, Damir Zlatar Fray and Lukas Nola.

He worked with a number of current European and regional film artists: Hans-Christian Schmidt, Jasmila Žbanić, Hrvoje Hribar, Vinko Brešan, Lukas Nola, Angelina Jolie, Zrinko Ogresta, Branko Schmidt, Janez Burger, Ognjen Glavonić, Antoneta Kusijanović and others. He took part in regional co-productions and shoots in Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Germany and Hungary.

From 2003 – 2010 he takes part in workshops and educational seminars in acting techniques according to Jerzy Grotowski, Clowning, Buffons and Majerhold. His teachers

are Lee Delong and Richard Nieoczym. In 2006 he founded Živa produkcija, his production company. During the next several years (2006 – 2014) he participated in most of regional, European and world festivals as an actor and a producer. His films won awards in Pula, Berlin, Sundance, Sarajevo, Brussels, Cannes, Los Angeles and Jerusalem; as an actor he won awards in Iran, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Slovenia, Srbija, Kosovo, Russia and Germany.

At the first Sarajevo Film Festival in 2007 he started teaching at the Sarajevo Talent Campus. He developed his own personal way of working with actors, which he has been using ever since, calling it Close up and personal.

For the last 15 years, he has been developing a method of acting and teaching. At first, he starts independently, and for the last five years in collaboration with Jelena Graovac Lučev, his wife – also a professional actress,  through the project “An actor has a time” ( org: Glumac ima vremena” ).

This program of teaching became a very successful in a short period of time, in the region as well as beyond, especially with young actors who have the desire to progress and work outside the established framework, and the ambition to participate in various international artistic projects.