Marcelo Leonart

Marcelo Enrique Leonart Tomas (born 1970) is a Chilean writer, filmmaker, and theater director. An avid reader in childhood, Marcelo Leonart wrote his first play, No salgas esta noche, in 1991. He developed his skills by attending the literary workshops of Poli Délano, Antonio Skármeta, and Carlos Franz. It was in the last of these where he finished Mujer desnuda fumando en la ventana, his first book, which was published in 1999.Some of the stories of that collection had already received awards, and the 2008 film 199 recetas para ser feliz, by Andrés Waissbluth, is based on one of them.

The following year, he was part of the scriptwriting team of the television series Romané. He went on to write for several other series. In 2012 he moved from TVN to Canal 13.As a dramatist, Leonart has written a series of pieces, and among the most recent he has directed is El taller. Written by Nona Fernández and premiered in 2012, it is inspired by the literary workshop that Mariana Callejas had at her home in Lo Curro, while her husband Michael Townley directed the operations of a DINA barracks in the basement.His first novel, Fotos de Laura, was applauded by critics and awarded, as was his second compilation of stories, La educación. After these two books appeared in 2012, he published the novels Lacra, La patria – whose main character is Francisco Javier Cuadra, minister of Augusto Pinochet – and Pascua, "which has at its center the abuses committed by priests."As a filmmaker, Leonart co-directed, together with Paulo Avilés, the film Grita (based on his homonymous theatrical work), which premiered in 2009 at the Santiago International Film Festival.

He has a son, Dante, with his partner, the writer Nona Fernández, whom he met when they both studied at the Theater School of the Catholic University. In 2004 the couple founded the theater company La Fusa, with which Leonart staged all his works from Grita to Liceo de niñas. The latter premiered in 2015, and with it the company was renamed La Pieza Oscura.