caricaturist, cartoonist, illustrator and painter, was born in Adelaide, but the family moved to Goroke in Western Victoria when he was nine months old then onto Condobolin. He moved to Sydney and studied at Beacon High School in 1967 then transferred to Newington College. A brilliant caricaturist, he began drawing cartoons professionally in 1983. He first drew for the Bulletin and for the Sydney Morning Herald , resigning from the latter in 1994 and moving to the Daily Telegraph-Mirror (swapping places with Suzanne White) . Now he is at the Australian .
By 1998 Leak had won 8 Gold Stanley Awards from the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club as Artist of the Year, including 1987-89, 1991-92, 1994 (Suzanne White won in 1990 and Eric Löbbecke in 1993) and 1996 [presumably also 1995 and 1997]. He was voted best caricaturist in 1989, 1991, 1994, best humorous illustrator in 1988-89, 1991, 1994, best general illustrator in 1987, 1989, and best cartoon done on the night in 1987 (awards listed only to 1993 in Lindesay: see also Inkspot ) He has also won 7 Walkley Awards for cartoon of the year, including 1996 (see Inkspot 28, Spring 1997). His paintings had been hung in the Archibald Prize 8 times by 1998 (more since) and he had both a portrait of Robert Hughes and a cartoon of cricketer Mark Taylor in the National Portrait Gallery.
Just quietly , Nurse and The man of action , published in the Australian on 21, 29 and 30 July 1997, were exhibited in Bringing the House Down: 12 Months of Australian Political Humour (Canberra: National Museum of Australia/ Old Parliament House [OPH] exhibition, 1997), cats 57, 9, 91. In 1998 he showed more cartoons and spoke about his work at the OPH cartooning seminar. He was also in Bringing the House Down 2001 (4 works) and doubtless in between. Included in State Library of New South Wales [SLNSW] exhibition Australians in black & white : (the most public art) in 1999, he gave a lecture at the library on 1 March 1999. He lectures and talks regularly, e.g. on radio, as well as publishing anthologies of his cartoons and occasionally writing on the subject. A selection of his cartoons, Drawing Blood , was published by Allan and Unwin in 1998.
He drew a version of 'for gorsake stop laughing’ for the Stanleys (Black and White Artists Club Awards) 1989 (SLNSW) – an acknowledged tribute to Stan Cross .
In 2002 Leak was hosting Radio National’s weekly arts’ program, 'Nighclub’.
