Michael-Leon Wooley

Michael-Leon Wooley (born March 29, 1971) is an American television, film and theatre actor and singer. Wooley lends his voice to Louis the Alligator in Disney's Oscar nominated animated feature film, The Princess and the Frog. Wooley played a judge on a radio station in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV. --- Wooley was born in Fairfax, Virginia to George and Winnie Wooley. He has a twin brother, Marcus-Leon, and a younger brother, George Jr.. He grew up in Bowie, Maryland. Wooley began playing the piano at age five and initially wanted to be a classical concert pianist. However after participating in a high-school production of Oklahoma! he became interested in the theatre and the dramatic arts. At age sixteen he was given the opportunity to study piano at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. but turned it down to instead focus on acting and singing. At age eighteen Wooley was awarded a full scholarship to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City, one of 21 scholarships granted in a nationwide competition. He studied at AMDA for a year before embarking on his own to pursue an acting career. Wooley auditioned 107 times before landing his first role in the national tour of Purlie, making three-hundred dollars a week. After the national tour of Purlie Wooley returned to New York and supported himself by playing in piano bars and occasionally singing in subway stations as well as working as a singing waiter on the Spirit of New York, a dinner cruise ship that circles Manhattan. --- Wooley recently lent his voice for Disney's Oscar nominated animated feature film, The Princess and the Frog. He lends his voice to Louis, a high-strung jazz singing, trumpet playing alligator. Wooley played Tiny Joe Dixon in the 2006 motion picture, Dreamgirls, and sang the solo 'Takin' The Long Way Home', the third song on the movie soundtrack.