Leah Amanda Shiller

Leah Amanda Shiller (born August 1, 1977) is a Canadian singer/songwriter, rapper and voice actress best known for performing as part of the girl group FanGirls, as well as with rap groups The 416 Brigade and Society's Little Devils. She is also one of the founders of the nerdcore supergroup Leah and The Faculty. Leah had been part of the Canadian hip-hop scene prior to joining FanGirls, and often performs rap verses on the group's recordings.

Aside from her work with FanGirls, The 416 Brigade, Society's Little Devils, and Leah and The Faculty, she has also released several solo albums, including Verbal Slaughter (2003) and Vulcan Dance Party (2008).

Early life
Leah was born at in, , , the daughter of Leah (née Berger) and Tobias Shiller, and was raised in ,. She is the niece of actor, voice actor and multimedia artist Martin Berger. As a child, she worked as a voice actress and also sung in commercial jingles. In 2003, Leah revealed she had been abused by her father and was briefly kicked out of her house for having a hip-hop look before her mother brought her back in. She had made amends with her father before he died in 2012 from a morphine overdose. Several of her friends lived in housing projects in Scarborough, and "hip-hop began making sense to me when I got to know some of them further." Leah claims she heard her first rap song, "Paper Thin" by, while attending a friend's birthday party.

In her early years, Leah voiced characters in a number of cartoons, including Grampa's Monster School and The Get Along Gang '87.

The 416 Brigade
At the age of 16, Leah pursued a career as a rapper, releasing a mixtape in 1994 with her first group, The 416 Brigade, recorded in her school's locker room and at a local band rehearsal hall. As most of the members were poor rappers at the time, they jokingly billed themselves as "The World's Worst Hip-Hop Group" and emphasized "nerdy" subject matter and self-deprecating humor. The 416 Brigade included fellow rappers MC Sajad and Romeo the Fruit Salesman. The 416 Brigade's debut album The 416 Brigade Sux (1995) was a hit on the underground hip-hop scene, and the lead single "Smokin' by the Water" (adapted from the Deep Purple classic "Smoke on the Water") charted in the U.S. at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 416 Brigade went on hiatus in 1997 after Romeo the Fruit Salesman was arrested on a hit-and-run charge, but reunited in 2008.

FanGirls
In early 1997, Leah was checking out acting auditions in the when her uncle Martin told her about "A Spice Girls-esque dance music group for some Norwegian record label". After seeing an ad about the group, called FanGirls, she went to check them out, auditioned, and joined the group. The band was still looking for an additional member, so she called Sammy Vue, her childhood friend, to ask her to audition for the group. Vue was immediately accepted, and the next day, she joined the group.

Leah was the second-youngest member at 19 years of age. She attended via correspondence.

Solo career
In 2002, Leah formed a second group, Society's Little Devils, with rappers MC Eliza and Lady Pizzazz. of worked with the group as a guest performer.

In 2010, Leah announced the creation of Leah and The Faculty, a nerdcore supergroup comprised of her, MC Eliza, and MC Sajad along with other nerdcore rappers.

Personal life
On November 1, 2007, Shiller married her longtime boyfriend Mark Tomkinson in a private ceremony at in, Canada. The couple lives in. Their son, Jeffrey Leo Shiller, is a child actor.