“My first hamburger came from the trash I collected in the buses that I cleaned for ten pesos a day when I was a kid. My stepfather was a basurero and he trained us to be the same, so we can have money to go to school. My mother left me with my stepfather when I was a kid. But he loved me just like his own children. Because of this, my stepbrothers were kinda jealous of me when we were kids, so one of them stabbed me with a ballpen under my eye. I still have the battle scar,” Leo Consul chats with your resident Manila Bulletin Gossip Girl in the Instagram app.
“But growing up, I forgave him, and now we really treat each other like real brothers. During high school, I was a scholar in Cape Bolinao High School and I worked my way through high school by being a dishwasher on weekdays and a salesboy during weekends. In my sophomore year in high school, I finally met my mom and my stepsister, who is based in the United States. My stepsister Nellie helped me in my schooling during my college years in U.P. Baguio where I graduated. I was also a working student during my college years as a local TV host at ABS-CBN regional network group. After college, I tried to audition for several acting and singing gigs here in Manila, but I was not as successful and life was getting more difficult with the bills I needed to pay, so I decided to apply as an English teacher in an Indonesian school. It was here in Indonesia where I got my break first as a host in Eat Bulaga Indonesia, then It’s showtime Indonesia and several TV shows then I started doing teleseryes. I am currently in one teleserye and filming two movies.”
He was in between breaks from taping the number 1 teleserye in Indonesia “Terpasa Menikahi Tuan Muda” shown in the number 1 television network in Indonesia ANTV where their television program has an 18.9 share in the ratings game versus its competing teleserye which only has a 3.8 share in the pie. Indonesia has more than 250 million people and 90 percent love watching teleseryes.
What is interesting is despite his successful acting career in Indonesia, the handsome matinée idol in Indonesia still wants to try out show business here in the Philippines.
“My stepfather dreams of watching a teleserye in the Philippines with me in it. He doesn’t want to transfer to Indonesia because of his age, so I decided to sign up with Cornerstone Entertainment in the Philippines. Hopefully, they can make that happen next year after I finish my teleserye here and two movies line up for me here. I owe a lot to my stepdad for giving me a life when my mom abandoned me. But I have forgiven my mom already. Harboring ill feelings will be futile,” the half Ilonggo-half Pangasinense tells Gossip Girl.
His fondest memory of his stepfather was when his stepfather saved up to give him his first Rubber shoes. It was a fake pair of Nike rubber shoes called Mike. For the longest time, he just wore broken slippers. This inspired him to write his book “A Thousand Miles in Broken Slippers” in English and translated in Bahasa. You can purchase the book on Amazon.
Source: https://mb.com.ph/2021/11/09/indonesian-superstar-is-a-filipino-who-started-out-as-basurero/