Leah Marville

Leah lost her father, Don Marville, at age eleven to brain cancer and was subsequently raised by her mother, Heather Gibson.[2] She had an active childhood and was part of the Dancing Africa dance troupe.

Marville attended Erdiston Primary school and Queen's College. She went on to study law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, Barbados.[2] She received her Bachelor of Laws with honours in 2007.[8] She completed her Legal Education Certificate at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad in August 2012. She has interned at a prominent entertainment law firm, Gordon-McGrath in Jamaica, and had oversight responsibilities for high-profile clients such as Beenie Man and family members of the late Reggae icon Bob Marley. Marville was also employed at the Jamaica Human Rights Council, where she was responsible for overseeing the human rights of death row inmates throughout prisons in Kingston, Jamaica.

While at Queens college she briefly served on her school's Cadet programme where her cousin Shontelle, who is signed to Street Records Corporation/Universal Motown Records[9] was her drill sergeant.[10]

Marville started modeling professionally in 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa for Base Model Management.[4][5] She has appeared in several magazine publications such as Cosmopolitan Elle and Marie Claire[3] and in 2009, after being titled the Sexiest Woman Alive, shot her first cover for SHE Caribbean[11] and her second cover for ZING LIAT Magazine.[12]

Her clients have included: Dunhill Cigarettes, American Swiss,[2] and Nivea-Visage. Marville has participated in several Caribbean fashion weeks: Barbados Fashion Week, Style Week Jamaica,[13] Saint Kitts fashion weekend, Guyana Fashion week, Dominicana Moda, and Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago. On 24 October 2010, Marville was given the award for Top Caribbean Female model, at the Caribbean fashion awards. Her tenth anniversary She magazine cover, was also awarded best Caribbean magazine cover for 2010.

In 2011, Marville signed on as the face and spokesmodel for the inaugural staging of Caribbean International Fashion Week.[14]

In 2006, Marville attended the BET Awards where she met with executive producers for the BET J Caribbean music show Wicked Style.[15] In 2008, she secured a place on the show as a guest host, and by 2009 she was promoted to the main host and co-produced the Barbados and Jamaican episodes.[16] Marville's interest in television production later led her to produce and direct Young Execs, a Barbadian Reality show modelled on The Apprentice, where CEO of South Central Entertainment (Barbados) Richard Haynes[17] assumes the Donald Trump role.

In 2009, Marville produced her own lifestyle reality show, Passport 246[18] in partnership with Mykal Cushnie of DSE Media in Jamaica.[19] In 2010 she launched the second season Passport246: Journey to Miss World.[20] This series was later syndicated on Tempo Networks in July 2011[21] In 2010, she joined the cast of Splash!,[22] with Tamara Ennis and Crystal Cunningham, on a lifestyle Caribbean show on Centric. In 2011, she was retained for the second season of Splash on Centric.[23]

Leah Marville is a freelance journalist for The Daily Nation newspaper,[24] The Barbados Advocate, and the Jamaican Gleaner Company newspaper.[25] In June 2009, Marville secured an exclusive interview feature with Larry Nimmer,[26] about his documentary, Michael Jackson: The Untold Story of Never Land.[27] The interview later aired on Television Jamaica (TVJ)[28] and on CBC TV 8 Barbados.

Marville later conducted entertainment related interviews with high-class stars such as Wyclef, Beenie Man, Marlon Wayans, Shontelle, Eve, Kelly Rowland, Rick Ross, Trey Songz, Etana, the Pussycat Dolls, Vybz Cartel, Lisa Leslie, Joe Jackson, Usain Bolt, Shaggy and Touré.