Biography

Whannell was born in Melbourne and attended Scoresby Primary School and Brandon Park Secondary College. A writer since childhood, Whannell worked as a reporter and film critic for several Australian television shows, including ABC's Recovery hosted by Dylan Lewis. He also had a minor role in The Matrix Reloaded, as well as the video game Enter The Matrix as the character Axel.

While in film school, he met James Wan, who would eventually go on to direct the horror film Saw (co-written by Wan and Whannell) in 2004. After making a short film to showcase the intensity of the script, the film was made and became a low-budget sleeper hit in late 2004. Whannell played Adam in the film, one of the main characters. The popularity of Saw led to a sequel, Saw II, which was directed and co-written by Darren Lynn Bousman, and on which Whannell co-wrote and revised Bousman's original script, titled The Desperate. Whannell also served as an executive producer.

Around the same time, Whannell got back with James Wan and they wrote a film called Dead Silence, which Wan directed. It was slated for a 2006 release, but small problems with the title pushed the release date back to March 2007, where it was released as Dead Silence. In 2006, Whannell and Wan, wrote the story for Saw III, with Whannell writing the screenplay for the third time. It was again directed by Bousman and was released on the October 27, 2006. Whannell has a featured cameo, reprising his role as Adam. Saw III was a huge financial success and raked in $33,610,391 on its opening weekend, making around $129,927,001 worldwide (after 38 days in cinemas) and is currently the most successful Saw film to date.

Whannell's writing partner, Wan, was chosen to direct the film Death Sentence, the first feature film with their participation that they did not write themselves. Whannell has a small role as "Spink" in Death Sentence. Leigh reckons that he may have inherited his love of story telling from his mother, and his fondness of film making from his father, who worked behind the camera in the television industry. Whannell is currently "taking off my writing hat" as he stars alongside Nathan Phillips in a new film, due to release in 2008, called Dying Breed. A low budget Australian horror film which is heavily rumoured to be set in the modern day, about a small group which set out to the Tasmanian wilderness to prove that Thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) still lives but whilst there become prey as they wonder into the domain of the living descendents of the Pieman, a group of cannibals who retain their ancestors taste for human flesh.

It was confirmed in an interview with Whannell that before and during the production of Saw he had visited hospital several times reguarding his own health. "I was going through a bit of a tough time health wise and suffering anxiety," says Whannell. "The anxiety manifested itself in physical ways. I was suffering headaches everyday for nearly a year. It was serious stuff and really started affecting my life." He also stated that while in hospital he was given inspiration for the character of Jigsaw/John to have cancer. "It was weird to be 25 and sitting in a neurological ward and I'm surrounded by people who actually had brain tumours. It was very scary and it was my first proper look at mortality. I really wanted to get my health back and it really hammered it how important good health is. If you've got that, you've got everything."