While reflecting on his career and his time working with the great Idris Elba on HBO’s Peabody Award winning series “The Wire”, award winning actor Raw Leiba says it “feels like it was yesterday”. “At the time Idris was making a name for himself playing the ruthless drug lord Stringer Bell”, “I came in to play his bodyguard originally named “Cave” although it’s not in the script but I got to know him and watched him prepare”, it was an education I reference to this day” Leiba says . He later invited Leiba to a club where was “Deejaying” that night.”Oh yeah if you don’t know”, “Idris can spin the wheels of steel, he’s really good!”
Leiba also got to work with the late Michael K. Williams who played Omar Little on the show and had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant months later in Newark, New Jersey.
“Michael was as real and genuine as they come man”,”he told me about his addiction issues and said he was battling “the demons” everyday”, “this from a guy who barely even knew me,so you could imagine that the fact he would share that with me means alot to me.”
The irony is it was Williams who ceremoniously ended Leiba’s role on The Wire having shot and killed his character and the iconic Stringer (Elba’s character) in the same season ending episode which was the most watched Wire episode of all time.
As Leiba recalls”the funny thing is at that time Idris was building quite a reputation with the ladies”, “not personally ofcourse they just loved him and his character and so women followed him like crazy”,”I remember being in a mall and a woman running up to me yelling”.. “How could you let Omar kill Idris fine a_s like that?” and that I had “ruined the show” for her and I was a “sh%tty bodyguard” ..”It was great!”
Leiba has ofcouse gone on to work with other great actors and actresses in film and television like Sandra Bullock, Jonah Hill , Holly Hunter , Jason Momoa, Melissa McCarthy ,Sam Rockwell , Kurt Russell , Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins , Patrick Wilson, Bradley Cooper and David Arquette.
His credits include telvision and motion pictures like the aforementioned Wire, Conan the Barbarian, Burn Notice, The Heat , Bone Tomahawk, the highly acclaimed Telemundo series Sangre de mi tierra and many others and another he garnered recently on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” season 11 finale where he played Attila, a professional wrestler with a “bad attitude” a challenging role for Leiba who holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
“That role required tough rehearsal with real falls and throws”, “there was no faking it” ,”fortunately I had two guys that were super experienced playing opposite me Nick McNeil who worked with WWE and Brady Pierce a stunt wrestler on “Heels”
Leiba also got the opportunity to work with The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus who plays Darryl Dixon and Josh McDermitt who plays Eugene Porter.
With “The Walking Dead” and its spin-offs “Fear of The Walking Dead” ,”The Walking Dead: Dead City” and “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon”, The Walking Dead franchise has become one of the most successful franchises in television history ..
Two of the most highly rated series in the history of entertainment and Raw Leiba has been a part of both “I have been very fortunate that the people in my business who make decisions believe in my talent and physical abilities and I am honored to have been a part of of those shows great history along with the other movies and TV shows that I’ve done”, “I treat them all the same I come to work hard” ,”give all I got and we get what we get”, “no one will outwork me” Leiba says.
