Local Actress & Model Leigh Bush. Beauty Beyond Skin Deep By Writer and Contributor Kari Sayers
When I first met model and actress Leigh Bush, I was immediately dazzled by her physical beauty -- her brilliant smile, her big expressive eyes, and her delicate milk-chocolate skin. but it is her inner beauty -- her kindness, her compassion, empathy and faith that made a greater impression, and these qualities have helped her transition from the less secure life of entertaining to the stability of healthcare. When she turned 50, the acting roles waned, she said, and as a single mother of a teenage daughter she needed a more stable income, and for the past eight years, she has managed and coordinated services for seniors.
“It’s a good fit,” Leigh said in a recent interview. “There’s an alignment between my skillset as an actor and being able to help seniors navigate the complexities of care coordination. As an actor, our number one job is to listen and respond truthfully in the moment.”
By the time the seniors come to Leigh, they’re often in a crisis, Leigh said. Their adult children are concerned that their parents can no longer live alone, but they have no idea how to start the process of assisted living. Leigh is able to listen and suggest appropriate services and make it happen.
One of nine siblings, Leigh was born in Detroit, MI, in 1966 and raised by her father, a physician assistant and a stepmother, a social worker. “My dad had four marriages and children from each of them,” Leigh said. Her siblings, she said, gave her a lot to draw from in developing characters later on.
She took fashion classes at Western Michigan University and landed modeling jobs for local clothing stores. From there, she went to New York. “I had a friend whose couch I slept on until I could find a job and pay for an apartment.” She worked at night and pursued her modeling career during the day. “And yes, I pounded the pavement and had to hustle”, she said. She was first picked up by a small agent who took her to a commercial agency. “They hired me right away,” she said and she booked enough television commercials to make a living.
Although Paris, the world’s fashion capital, beckoned, at 5’7” she was too short for the big designers and instead stayed in New York and enrolled in New York University where she earned a degree in literature and journalism with the idea of going to law school and becoming a lawyer. But she had been bitten by the acting bug and performed in many plays off-Broadway and off-off Broadway. “I’m so happy on stage. That’s where I thrive,” she said.
While with the agency Margaret Models, she went to Japan for three months to do shows, print work and all kinds of advertising. “They’re very creative over there,” Leigh said. “A lot of Japanese products have my face on them.” She was only 23 years old she said, but that’s old in the world of modeling. “I was the house-mother. All the other girls were sixteen, seventeen and eighteen years old.”
Back in New York, she later married a music producer and shortly after their daughter was born, the small family moved to Los Angeles, where Leigh joined the renowned Wilhelmina Model Agency. While with Wilhelmina, she landed a six-month gig in South Africa, doing television commercials, fashion magazines. Catalogues and some shows.
After nine years of marriage, Leigh and her husband divorced, and Leigh became a single mother, but it didn’t slow her down. She has appeared on the television show The Equalizer where she shared a scene with Queen Latifah. In American Gigolo, she played a realtor and appeared with Rosie O’Donnell.
Although she now spends most of her time helping seniors, she still finds time to audition for parts. She plays the wife of a former baseball player and the principal of a high school in O’Clan which is featured on Tubi. In the independent film The Squatter, ready to be released this summer, she plays the role of the title character.
With all her experiences, her most memorable moment is nevertheless carrying and giving birth to her daughter who is now a 22-year-old writer. And so, life of the modern woman goes on.
For more information: https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/leighbush
Kari H. Sayers BIO
With a BA in English and an MA in linguistics from California State University, Long Beach, Kari Sayers went with her husband to Saudi Arabia, where she first worked as a music teacher at Riyadh International Community School and then as a journalist for the English newspapers the Saudi Gazette and the Arab News as well as in-flight magazines. When she returned to Southern California, she taught literature, college composition, and English as a Second Language at Marymount California University in Rancho Palos Verdes, while freelancing as a theater, classical concert, and opera reviewer for local newspapers and magazines in the Los Angeles area.. In addition to authoring the novels Roses Where Thorns Grow, Under the Linden Tree, and the soon-to-be-released Justice for Lizzie, all published by Melange Books in Minnesota, she is the developer and editor of the anthology Views and Values, published by Cengage. Now widowed,. Kari lives in the Los Angeles area.