Andrew Leci
Andrew Leci is a reformed theatre actor, producer, director; an erstwhile television sports presenter and broadcast journalist; a lapsed chef and restaurateur, and a constant op-ed, food, lifestyle, art and sports writer.
From an early age, Andrew realised that he had a short attention span, but could never have imagined how many different ‘careers’ he would have had before reaching the age of 60. He singlehandedly puts the ‘mob’ into the mobility of labour. Starting out with a very useful (not) degree in English Literature and Drama, he quickly discovered that being an impecunious actor in repertory theatre with a lot of books to feed and heating bills to pay was a thankless task, and promptly moved into the world of high finance as an investment broker and portfolio manager.
Three years later, Andrew found himself on the other side of whatever world he was living in – a surreal one in which he had a platinum credit card, a house in Highgate, London, two Rolexes and a Porsche at the age of 24 - and discovered that pretending to be something that he wasn’t could be a career after all.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he founded the infamous (some would say notorious) Instant Café Theatre Company and decided to bite the hand that fed him by satirising the Malaysian government in 20 or so full-scale comedy revues which he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in. This led, obviously enough, to a series of writing assignments for regional and global magazines and newspapers that culminated in his contribution to several books and the desperate need to prove his credentials in the arena of food writing.
Having trained as a chef, while continuing to write, and performing occasionally, Andrew opened an award-winning bar and restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia, which was the scene of much cavorting and many culinary capers. Fed up with being hot a great deal of the time and cutting too many fingers (which adversely affected his piano playing), Andrew then took the logical step of getting into sports television, starting out as a ‘junior’ reporter and story writer for SportsCenter on ESPN, before rising through the ranks and becoming anchor for the network’s coverage of the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. After 15 years (his longest span of attention to date) doing live, unscripted, and mostly unrehearsed television in front of hundreds of millions of television viewers, Andrew took the advice of his mentor who said, “take a break for six months, and then give up altogether.” During his stint at ESPN, he became a published novelist (Once Removed – Marshall Cavendish, 2008), and was considered, very briefly, for a Commonwealth Literature prize.
Having attempted to retire four times now, he has realised that he’s not very good at it and needs more practise. He is now Contributing Editor and ‘Raving Reporter’ at Robb Report Singapore, and writes about almost anything he vaguely understands. When not writing, he looks after three equally recalcitrant and enigmatic cats, plays golf and football, listens to very old music, tries to control a Sudoku addiction, reads voraciously, and used to have an impressive collection of fine single malt whiskies until he drank them all in an extended fit of pique.
A hack psychologist and a secular humanist (whatever that is…he used to think he knew) Andrew is contemplating becoming a life coach as soon as he can install wheels and an internal combustion engine. He is still trying to understand quantum physics and is an Aquarian tiger, which has resulted in many contretemps with his cats around the water bowl.
