Leila Bela is an Iranian-born American avant-garde musician, writer, photographer, actress, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, and recording artist from Austin, Texas.
14 Facts About Leila Bela
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Leila Bela's mother abandoned her at age four and she lived in several foster homes and with family and strangers all over the world growing up.
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Leila Bela began attending Nightclubs and gay bars such as Numbers and Rich's in Houston, Tx.
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Leila Bela's first major job was an interview with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
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Leila Bela had been told by the paper only to cover the show, but when Reznor saw her, he introduced himself and offered her an interview, allowing her to use his recording device to record it.
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Leila Bela accepted, and he later invited her to the opening of the very first Lollapalooza as his guest and a reporter.
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Leila Bela was one of five students, chosen out of thousands who had submitted original plays, to study with award-winning playwright Edward Albee, known for his dark themes.
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Leila Bela performed such roles as Natalia in Three Sisters in 2001, Lady Nijo in Top Girls in 2002, Regan in King Lear, Phoebe in As You Like It, and Antigone in Antigone.
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Leila Bela is the creator of a custom-made instrument called a Beltar, which has sympathetic strings and can play either noise or melody.
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Leila Bela designed it to look like a weapon based on a theory Trey Spruance related to her of how "instruments are the weapons of angels".
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Leila Bela collaborated with Eric Tessmer in 2010 on a Persian folk song called "To Beya".
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Leila Bela wrote the rearrangement of the song and directed a video that was shown on a Persian Film Festival site.
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Leila Bela was featured in Dazed Magazine as one of 12 artists who made alternative anthems for Dazed.
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Leila Bela created an experimental track for them to stream called "Bitten Reformer".