Born in New York. Grew up in Philadelphia with his parents and little sister. Attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Graduated and moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2003.
Graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon Universitys prestigious School of Drama.
An accomplished singer and dancer, Leslie made his Broadway debut at 17 playing "Paul" in Rent.
Turned down the role of "Mereb" in the original cast of AIDA to continue his studies at CMU.
Was a 2002 Princess Grace Award winner for Acting.
His talented Freshman class at Carnegie included Josh Groban , Katy Mixon , Brennan Hesser , Griffin Matthews , Audra Blaser , Angela Lin, Josh Gad , and Ben Pelteson.
Won the 2012 Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer on Broadway and was nominated for a Drama League Award for his work in the short lived Broadway flop "Leap of Faith" with music by Academy Award winning writer Alan Menken. The show officially ran for just 2 and a half weeks at the St. James Theater in New York City.
Leslie and his "best friend" on Smash, Megan Hilty , were students at Carnegie Mellon University together. Hilty was just 1 year under Odom, Jr. in the Theatre program.
Won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance as Aaron Burr in the Broadway sensation Hamilton.
Counts Anna Deavere Smith as a major inspiration in his life.
