Leo Harlem, the mood of the things that happen to us

There are humorists who build characters and others who need to invent whole worlds to make us laugh. Leo Harlem has achieved something apparently much simpler and, perhaps for that, much harder: finding comedy in ourselves. In our holidays, our meals, our families, our manies and in those small daily situations that we all recognize and that, after going through their eyes, we never see again in the same way.

Leonardo González Happy, Leo Harlem for several generations of viewers, broke into the national landscape in the early 2000's and found «The Club of Comedy» the perfect window for a form of humor based on observation, rhythm and an extraordinary ability to turn the daily into hilarious. From there came the scenarios, the radio and the television, building a popularity that has rarely needed artefacts: it is enough for the public to know immediately that it is before Leo Harlem.

The cinema didn't take long to discover that ability. After debuting on the big screen with Torrente 5: Operation Eurovegas (2014), by Santiago Segura, it became progressively one of the most recognizable faces of Spanish comedy. Villagicosa next door, Best summer of my life, losing the east, until the wedding separates us, Superagent Makey, to every train. Destination Asturias, As God commands, Summer Holidays or The Benethon family are some of the titles that have been consolidating their relationship with the public.

Especially important was The best summer of my life (2018), directed by Dani de la Orden, in which he took the lead of a comedy that surrounded the million spectators in the Spanish rooms. His presence on the large screen has shown that behind the monologist there is also an interpreter who can move his personality to intimate, close and recognizable characters.

Perhaps one of the keys to his success is precisely that Leo Harlem never seems to look at his characters (or his audience) from above. He laughs at our contradictions because it is also included in them. His mood finds fertile ground in Spanish customs, in our exaggerations and in our particular ability to complicate our existence, but he does so from complicity and affection.

More than two decades after his first professional steps, he continues to fill theatres and make viewers of different generations laugh. In 2025 he received the Humor Miguel Gila Award of Honor for the whole of his career.

In its 25th edition, the Benalmádena International Film Festival joins this recognition by giving Leo Harlem the Award «A Film Life»: a tribute to an artist who has made laughter a trade and who, for more than twenty years, has reminded us of something essential: few things are as healthy as learning to laugh at ourselves.