Born in Rennes in Brittany, Léo Merrien started dancing at 15 with breakdance. He took modern jazz and contemporary dance classes before joining the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris. He graduated in contemporary dance, and went on to do a master’s degree. During his first year at the conservatory, he started to work with the Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne in their hip-hop collective FAIR-E, and during his last year, Léo worked with Damien Jalet on choreographic research for Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard. He has also taken part in a number of commercial projects, including a promotional video for fashion brand Off-White, for Issey Miyake during Paris Fashion Week, for the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in Doha for a private event, a promotional video for art gallery PERROTIN and for the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ). 

Léo then joined the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève under the direction of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. After one season he returned to Paris to start working as a freelance artist. He worked with Alexander Ekman for the Paralympics opening ceremony, with Mehdi Kerkouche for a few short projects and with Rachid Ouramdane for his new creation Contre-nature, mixing acrobatics and dance. He also started to work on his own projects.