Leonardo Nam was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to Sydney, Australia at the age of 8. He attended Sydney Technical High School, and went on to study for a Bachelor in Architecture at the University of New South Wales. He left Sydney to pursue an acting career in New York at the age of 19. He studied with several teachers in New York, namely Austin Pendleton and William Carden at HB Studios. His brother is a dancer in London and his sister is a children's book writer in Ghana. His breakthrough role came in his performance of Roy in _Perfect Score, The (2003)_ in 2002.