We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leno 615. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leno below.

Leno, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

It hasn’t always been an easy journey. When I first started in the comedy game I was I told that I would have to change my image, because I was “Too Hood” and I didn’t look like the rest of the comedians in the game. It wasn’t too many comics out here with dreads and tattoos. For the longest when I would go to a show people would ask me if I was a rapper, I’d just laugh and say “Nope, I’m here to try and make these people laugh”. I use the way I look to my advantage every time, because my personality doesn’t match my actual look at all.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I Became A Comedian Completely By Accident!!! Back in the summer of 2016 my brother Jovan called me and asked me if they could use me as a character in a skit because they needed a “Big scary looking thug” and apparently I was the first person he thought of. It was completely out of my comfort zone because I was still in the streets and you weren’t really respected in the streets by being funny, but me being me and Jovan being my brother I went ahead and did it. So we recorded the skit they posted it on the Instagram and most of the comments were things like “That guy with dreads is funny” so they asked me to be in a few more and it kind of just snowballed from there. I’ve never really been a big people person nor did I like having a lot of attention on me so I was definitely uncomfortable at first, but I was also about to have my first child later on in January so I knew if I wanted to raise my son and actually be there for him I had to leave the streets alone. (Shoutout To My Son Zaylen My First Lifesaver.) During the time I was waiting on my son to enter the world I started putting all my focus into the social media game, doing skits, going out of town, going to different venues, and I was actually getting noticed but not like the other people I was working with. Originally it was 5 of us in total trying to make something out of this “IG Comedy”. Nashville JG who kind of put it all together, Voqualz the loud crazy outgoing spontaneous guy, Jovan our director/editor/actor. SmirkTv, the guy with all the dialogue and voice that will throw you for a loop, and myself the big thug with a lot of personality who knew this might have been his only way out. All of these guys had 15k+ followers on Instagram meanwhile I was struggling just to get 1,000 followers (Got 22k On TikTok Though). It started getting frustrating and my son had just been born so I slowed down on doing skits for a while, as I was gone I would still see 1-2 comments asking about “The funny dread head” but I didn’t really pay it any attention. Then one day my brother from my caucasian mother SmirkTv called me and basically demanded that I do a skit with him and he promised me I wouldn’t regret it, again me a people pleaser I did it and we took off. The first video we had maybe 20k views in 2 hours and my Instagram was blowing up, people were messaging me who I’ve never met before asking me to collaborate with them it was wild. So I figured something good has to come from this so I started focusing on making myself a brand at that point and see how far I can actually go. After about 4 years of doing skits on Instagrams I was somewhat known and I had made a few big moves but they weren’t big enough I was getting numbers on social media but not enough numbers for my bank account and I was starting to veer off back into my negative habits because I needed money and my boy SmirkTv saw that and he told me that we needed to try stand up comedy because we were bigger than the internet. We started going to Open Mic’s around Nashville stepped into this bar called Everything’s Bar & Lounge (S/o Big E & My Uncle C-Bo) and the rest was history before I knew it people were calling me a stand up comedian. I also had one of my closest friends Isiah James aka “Tre G” tell me that he wanted to see me make something of myself and get out the way and show people that it’s ok to yourself and be funny, my boy died 3 weeks after my first open mic and 9 days before my birthday so I felt like I had to keep going because Tre had some plans for us both in the comedy game because we were both funny but we both came from the same background so this isn’t only my journey it’s Tre’s journey too he’s just living it through me. So I just want take this last little bit to say, Rest Easy Tre Geezy I hope I’m making you proud bro I Love Ya & I Wish You Were Here To See It.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal is to make sure that my kids and my family are taken of S/o (Zay,Deslynn,& Destiny). Those 3 right there changed my perspective on life and really made me feel like I actually have a purpose in life, that’s why I tell them all the time, They saved my life in so many ways, because I’m not supposed to be here doing this interview today. I’ve had a rough childhood and never really had a big family so I always made a promise to myself that if I ever had kids that I would see to it that they have a better life than I did. As far as my mission, my mission is to show the world that you don’t have to change your image to be successful. You can be from the streets and still make it out without being a rapper, or a big time dope boy just stay true to yourself and follow your dreams and the people who are for you will be there for you and the ones that aren’t were never meant to be there. As long as you listen first and speak second, use your common sense, remain humble, and live in your truth everything else will fall in line

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I wouldn’t necessarily say I have a story because I never really built an audience on social media I guess you can my audience and my supporters built me if that makes sense, because I’m still the same guy from 15th Ave South, but the people have made me somebody they’ve shared my post so much bought tickets to my shows bought my DVDs, Shirts.Etc. If it wasn’t for them there wouldn’t be no Leno615, and that’s not just people from my environment it’s from people of different and races nationalities, they love me and I haven’t changed a thing about my demeanor I just stay true to myself. As far as advice man just do it!!!! Damn what other people think about you doing it, so what if you’re not the best at the time, if that’s really your passion get out there and do it. Don’t let anyone tell talk you out of following your dreams because they don’t have the vision you do they don’t know how far you’re willing to go. Yea we all have eyes but that’s why they have different prescriptions when it comes to glasses and contacts because we all don’t have the same vision. People aren’t going to understand why you go so hard at what you do because they don’t see your goal, but as long as you see your goal and know where you want to be tune all the negativity out and GO FOR IT.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Leno615_
• Facebook: Leno Certified
• Youtube: Leno615
• Other: TikTok:Leno615