Early life and education Leonard was born in
Seattle, Washington, where she also grew up. She graduated from the
Lakeside School, and received an undergraduate degree from
Barnard College in 1987 and a graduate degree from
Cornell University in City and Regional Planning.
Career After interning at the
National Wildlife Federation in the late 1980s, Leonard began working with
Greenpeace on a campaign to ban international waste dumping, traveling around the world to track garbage and hazardous waste sent from
developed to
less developed countries. "I was sneaking into the factories where it was being disposed, interviewing the workers, taking
hair samples and
soil samples to prove the environmental health harm," she later explained in an interview with Cornell University. In 1992, she testified in front of the
US Congress on the topic of international waste
trafficking. Leonard is best known as the creator and narrator of the animated documentary about the life cycle of material goods,
The Story of Stuff (2007). The documentary began as an hour-long talk and was made into a condensed film version based on popular demand. She also wrote a book version of the film, published in 2010 in the United States by Free Press of
Simon & Schuster, in the UK by
Constable & Robinson, and in Germany by Econ Verlag. After
The Story of Stuff, she created
The Story of Cap and Trade (2009), which addresses
emissions trading. Subsequent productions include
The Story of Bottled Water,
The Story of Cosmetics,
The Story of Electronics,
The Story of Citizens United v. FEC,
The Story of Broke,
The Story of Change, and
The Story of Solutions. In addition to her work on the
Story of Stuff films, Leonard was co-creator and coordinator of GAIA (the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives), serving on the boards of
International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and the Environmental Health Fund. She previously worked for Health Care Without Harm,
Essential Information, and
Greenpeace International, and was coordinator of the
Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption. In March 2022, actress and climate activist
Jane Fonda co-founded the Jane Fonda Climate PAC (
political action committee) with Leonard. In April 2025, Leonard announced that she was working on a new book celebrating the history of protest in the US and the world.
Personal life Leonard lives in the
San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter Dewi, born in 1999. ==References==