Nick De Leon

Emily-Nick De Leon (born Nicholas Michael De Leon June 18, 1996) is an American pastor, evangelist, LGBT rights activist, author, and politician. Formerly a director, voice actor, screenwriter, Online Piracy Act SOPA activist, and video game designer. De Leon became known for being the host of the Nick De Leon Show, which they done from 2009-2010 and its revival series in 2015, their roles as Amuro Ray, Char Aznable and many others in the Gundam on ROBLOX trilogy. They are now the founder and head pastor of De Leon LGBT Christian Ministries and a former political candidate.
==Biography==
De Leon was born on June 18, 1996 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They grew up in Green Bay’s east side with their sister and one of their three half-brothers. Their father was a machine operator at a paper mill and their mother is a caretaker for disabled adults.
===Filmmaking career===
====Nick De Leon Show and Gundam on ROBLOX====
De Leon began their career with as the host and director of the Nick De Leon show in 2009. And since then, they have used their directing skills for video game trailers for the NFC North Battle series. In 2011, De Leon has directed shorts for the short, "Spalding Classic" for their show "Guerilla Blitz." Their time with Guerilla Blitz ended on November 14, 2011 when the show broadcasted the first episode of what is now "Pilot" of Mobile Suit Gundam on ROBLOX without their permission and De Leon quit directing for the series, leading Guerilla Blitz to cancel. Since then MSGoR finally has been named for De Leon's show running three episodes from November 15, 2011 all the way to March 24, 2012.
Following the sucess of Mobile Suit Gundam on ROBLOX, De Leon has written their own take of Zeta Gundam on ROBLOX, which was to run two seasons from 2012 til either 2013 or 2014 but apparently went on hiatus.
====NikeTube's decline====
After the debut of the Zeta Gundam on ROBLOX episode Paint it Black, the show went on a sudden hiatus for an unknown reason. Following ZGoR's stall, De Leon took part in the HD Remaster project of season 1 of the Nick De Leon Show with the first two episodes re recorded by De Leon in 2013. From 2013-2014 due to a computer problem, NikeTube Studios came to a full halt. The studio rebooted in June 2014 with new episodes to NikeTube Shorts, most notably the holiday special 9th Night of Chanukkah.
In January 16, 2015, NikeTube revived the Nick De Leon Show for a 2nd season which consisted of 13 episodes lasting until October 7, 2015. Unfortunately neither NikeTube Shorts nor the Nick De Leon Show failed to regain NikeTube's popularity much like it did in 2009 and 2012. Also, NikeTube Shorts ran only a two episodes season due to project cancellations. As a result, on March 11, 2016 De Leon addressed that if due to the low views and inability to produce content, the studio would shut down by the end of the year. At that point, NikeTube was only able to keep afloat with Gundam model kit reviews and De Leon was becoming more interested in running one year old De Leon LGBT Christian Ministries. NikeTube Studios officially closed its office and ceased all projects on January 1, 2017.
===De Leon LGBT Christian Ministries===
On April 28, 2015, De Leon was ordained by Universal Life Church Monastery where the ordination then led to the creation of De Leon LGBT Christian Ministries which became publicly established on September 28, 2015.
In February 23, 2017 De Leon was awarded a Doctor of Divinity by Universal Life Church.
=== Early political activity ===
Main articles: Nick De Leon gubernatorial campaign, 2018, Nick De Leon state assembly campaign, 2020
On November 10, 2017, De Leon announced that they would be running for Governor of Wisconsin in the Democratic primary, criticizing the state's Republican Party and incumbent Governor Scott Walker for supporting corporate interests. On February 1, De Leon had changed their party affiliation to the Green Party on their Campaign Registration form and Declaration of Candidacy. Following the Wisconsin Green Party's 2018 Spring Gathering to decide on candidate endorsements, De Leon's opponent Michael White was chosen over them, leading to De Leon's loss of the Green Party nomination for Governor. On June 19, 2018, De Leon officially suspended their campaign and endorsed Democrat Matt Flynn for Governor.
After the 2018 governors race it has been implicated that De Leon would consider running for the Wisconsin State Assembly, District 88. On July 9, 2019 a campaign registration statement under their name as a Democrat was submitted to to the Wisconsin Elections Commission as well as a Declaration of Candidacy on August 9th. De Leon announced their candidacy on August 11, 2019 coinciding with the 100th Birthday of his city's local NFL team, the Green Bay Packers and Gay Uncles Day.
==Other ventures==
===Sports===
De Leon had managed the NEW Lutheran Blazers varsity basketball team for the 2013-14 WIAA season. The Blazers went to state in 2014 but lost the championship to Thorp.
Besides basketball at N.E.W. Lutheran, De Leon had also managed the girls volleyball team. Initially, the reaction everyone had to them becoming the manager was initially negative because traditionally the position was given to a girl and male stereotypes existed. This attitude hadn't lasted long since the players began to notice that De Leon had noticeably less masculine traits and was accepting to "girl talk".
==Personal life==
De Leon is of Dutch, English, French Canadian, Filipino, German, Menominee, Scottish ancestries. It was long believed De Leon had Spanish ancestry, but was ruled out after it wasn't found present in their father's and his own AncestryDNA test. They also have ancestry from the Native American, Maidu Tribe in northern California. According to an AncestryDNA test taken by them it said they are of Indigenous Mexican ethnicity however it could be that the Maidu tribe is categorized with the Indigenous Americas—Mexico region category.
De Leon is a distant relative to three politicians, the most famous being their 10th cousin Justin Trudeau, the 23rd and incumbent Prime Minister of Canada and his father Pierre Trudeau the 15th Prime Minister of the same country. Their second cousin one time removed is former Green Bay mayor Roman Denissen through their second great grandfather Theodore Denissen, an immigrant from Uden, Netherlands and their 4th great-grandfather, Joseph Ducharme owned land in Allouez, Wisconsin due to his position in the American Fur Company, a fur-trading business owned by John Jacob Astor.
De Leon is a fan of the Chicago Cubs and has been attending Cubs home and road games against the Milwaukee Brewers. They are also a fan of the Milwaukee Bucks, the Wisconsin Badgers football team and the Green Bay Packers of the NFL, but as an adolescent they were a fan of the Minnesota Vikings..
On July 18, 2018 it was noticed that De Leon's Instagram account was accessed by a Russian hacker with the email, o*******4@m***.ru.
===Politics and views===
De Leon is a social democrat, populist and a progressive whom like their influence, Bernie Sanders, supports the Nordic model.
In 2014 De Leon voted for Madison School Board member and businesswomen Mary Burke in the 2014 Wisconsin gubernatorial election. They supported Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Presidential primary. Sanders lost the Democratic nomination to former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. For one month in September 2015 De Leon supported Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, only to redirect their support to Hillary Clinton on September 26. They supported Senator Sanders again in the 2020 presidential election until Sanders conceded to primary opponent and former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden beat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
====Pornography====
According to The Gay Catechism: Explaining the LGBT Christian, though De Leon hasn't watched pornography since 2012, their beliefs on pornography are noticeably moderate, especially internet pornography stating: "I don’t encourage anyone who is reading this to watch porn, but regardless of whether or not a zealot will say porn is bad across the board, it does benefit people, including teenagers by allowing them to understand truly what they like sexually."
====SOPA Activism====
In January 2012, De Leon broadcasted two episodes of a show called "Fuck You SOPA!" which was a program that De Leon had speeches with heavy amounts of profanity and emotion about their opposing of the bill.
====Religion====
De Leon was baptised and confirmed on December 2, 2012 in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. They were excommunicated from the church on December 1, 2014 just one day shy from two years of church membership. De Leon left due to the LCMS's conservative views on homosexuality and womens rights.
They enrolled at N.E.W. Lutheran High School on January 15, 2013. They ended their education at N.E.W. on January 21, 2015.
As a filmmaker in December 23, 2014, NikeTube Studios released the holiday special, 9th Night of Chanukkah. In the special, De Leon plays Jordan Delgado, who is fed up with always celebrating the heavily commercialized Christmas and decides to be educated about Hanukkah by a Rabbi. It was in the 2014 holiday season that De Leon began to acknowledge themselves as a Jewish Christian. In December 24, 2016, De Leon LGBT Christian Ministries posted on Instagram a picture of a menorah and a "Hanukkah tree" with the caption "To all our friends of the Jewish faith, we wish you a wonderful eight days of Hanukkah." The same day, De Leon posted on Instagram a selfie of him wearing a Hanukkah sweater with the phrase "Let's get lit", referring to the Jewish holiday.
On April 28, 2015 De Leon was ordained through Universal Life Church. They opened De Leon LGBT Christian Ministries on September 28, 2015.
====Relations with other religions====
In the afternoon of January 28, 2017, De Leon expressed condolences to Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Texas after it was burned down by Marq Vincent Perez. Their message brought positive reactions from members of the mosque as well as residents of the Victoria community.
=== Sexual orientation and gender identity ===
As a child, De Leon was teased for being considered introverted and effeminate because they played with girls, and tended to be more emotional than their peers, but otherwise was as normal as anyone.
Sometime after De Leon's birthday when they were 12 years old De Leon had encountered their first boyfriend, describing that their kiss with him was followed after mentioning “Why can’t guys date guys and girls date girls?”. By the time De Leon entered middle school until their freshman year of high school they felt confused about their sexual orientation until after a few discomforting encounters with their freshman girlfriend. When they turned 15, De Leon began to acknowledge to themselves that they were gay, but kept it a secret.
De Leon came out gay on November 19, 2014. During this time, same-sex marriage in Wisconsin was already legal for over one month and evangelical churches and organizations were overcoming their loss in the state Supreme Court. When De Leon came out, it caused controversy within the North Wisconsin District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. At this point in time, De Leon was already influenced by the teachings of Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson and LifeJourney Church . De Leon claims that they had been stripped of their status in their church and had been in hours-long debates with the pastor of their church about homosexuality. It was until after the church's worship service on Sunday, November 30, 2014 that De Leon declared themselves independent of the LCMS and was excommunicated the same day. It was almost two years earlier that they were baptized in the same congregation.
De Leon came out as pansexual on March 3, 2020.
In June 2021, De Leon has came out as non-binary and has changed gender pronouns to they/them.
=== Health ===
One day after being given their doctor of divinity, De Leon was a passanger of a two-vehicle car accident near Bethel Baptist Church in Allouez, Wisconsin. According to their account, the 2002 Ford Taurus De Leon was riding on ice and slid clockwise between the grass and the rear wheels on Libal Street. De Leon gone out to attempt pushing the car back into the street while the driver accelerated the car in reverse. The attempt failed and as De Leon was entering the car, another vehicle collided into the Taurus. De Leon was pinned between the two cars but only received a small cut on their right calf and a bruise on their right hand.
After dropping out of the race for Governor, De Leon committed to a weight loss plan that involved a fast food diet of salads and grilled chicken wraps from McDonald's, veggie burgers from Burger King, six-inch subs from Subway and "power bowls" from Taco Bell with a small bowl of Grape But cereal in the morning. This was done on a calorie restriction between 1200-1800 calories which resulted in losing almost 70 pounds in 10 months. They weighed 165 pounds in July 2019.
In 2021 De Leon was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and acknowledged they suffer from anxiety. This was in response to a failed suicide attempt on May 18th.
==Controversies==
===Kewaskum, Wisconsin===
On September 11, 2017, De Leon was accused of being insensitive towards conservative Christians and residents of Kewaskum, Wisconsin after writing a Facebook post criticizing the practices of the owner of a Kewaskum Dairy Queen, stating:
"Who would've thought of how backwards Kewaskum, Wisconsin really is? First I shut down their assemblyman, Jesse Kremer for his anti-gay legislation last year, than today shared a story about his fundamental belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old (it's actually 157 years old, KIFFLOM!!) and now I'm posting about this Dairy Queen from that same place."
The post came with mostly negative criticism from conservatives. One person who commented on De Leon's post criticized De Leon for making the assumption that because a person is a devout Christian that they are automatically a bigot and homophobe. Another commenter accused De Leon for being insensitive by persecuting the owner of the Dairy Queen. A later comment came from a businessman who travels between Chicago, Illinois and Appleton, Wisconsin says that "Thanks to this post I will be sure to visit this DQ and show my support for their right to post a sign supporting God and my country."
==Filmography==
===Movies===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
2012	GTA Police Pissed Off: The Ultimate Disaster Movie	None 	Director, Producer, and Writer
2013	NikeTube Goes Fifth 	Themselves	Director, Producer, Writer, and Creator
2015	Nick De Leon Show: The Chronicle 	
* Themselves
*	Director, Producer, Writer, and actor
20??	Mobile Suit Gundam on ROBLOX: Char's Counterattack	
* Amuro Ray
* Char Aznable
* Bright Noa
* Mirai Yashima	
Director, Producer, Writer, and Creator
===Shows===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
2009-2010 	Nick De Leon Show 	Themselves (host) 	
First Role
Director, Writer, Producer
2011 	Guerilla Blitz 	Director of the Spalding Classic	co-Writer
2011-2012 	Mobile Suit Gundam on ROBLOX 	
* Amuro Ray
* Char Aznable
* Bright Noa
and many other characters	
Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
2012 	Fuck You SOPA! 	Themselves (host) 	Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
2012-2016 	NikeTube Shorts 	Various characters 	
Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
2012 	Zeta Gundam on ROBLOX 	
* Quattro Bajeena
* Bright Noa
and many other characters	
Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
2013 	Gundam Father of Peace 	
*Zeon Soldier (supporting role)	first appearance in Gundam FOP
2013 	The N Factor 	
*Themselves (host) 	Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
2013 - 2015	Nick De Leon Show HD Remaster Project	
*Themselves (host) 	
Redub
Director, Writer, Producer
2015 	Nick De Leon Show 	
*Themselves (host) 	
Director, Writer, Producer
===Theatre===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
2014	Mother Goose Mystery	Bobby Shafto	Stage debut
==Awards and Nominations==
Year	Title 	Host 	Result 	Entrie(s)
2011	Gundam/Transformers Christmas Contest	Brandon Runckel	Won 	Mobile Suit Gundam on ROBLOX: Tragedy in Jaburo
2012	ROBLOXiwood Anime Grand Prix 	N/A 	Won 	
Mobile Suit Gundam on ROBLOX
2012	July Custom Gundam Contest 	Brandon Runckel	Nominated	
*RX-78SA-1 Stealth Action Gundam
*RX-78-3 Gundam (Sayla Mass Custom)
*MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type (Nick De Leon Custom)
2013	ROBLOXiwood Anime Grand Prix 	N/A 	Won 	
Best Animation: Zeta Gundam on ROBLOX
Best Masked Villain: Char Aznable
2013	 	 	 	
==Bibliography==
* De Leon, Nick. Mobile Suit Gundam on ROBLOX: The Midnight Hunter. Green Bay, WI: Horn-Rimmed Publishing, 2013. Online
* De Leon, Nick.The Gay Catechism: Explaining the LGBT Christian. Green Bay, WI: Horn-Rimmed Publishing, 2016. Ebook
== Photo Gallery==
Nick De Leon Signature.png|Nick De Leon's Signature
RobloxScreenShot07172012 195544333.jpg|Nick De Leon's animated appearance in NikeTube Shorts
RobloxScreenShot07242012 191632239.jpg|Nick De Leon eating an unconcious Amuro Ray
Nicks WLUK interview at Lambeau Field 3.png
Nicks WLUK interview at Lambeau Field 2.png
Nick the Shammy Guy.png|Nick the Shammy Guy
Shammy.png|Shammy Artwork
Animated Nick De Leon.png|Nick De Leon lineart by himself
Animated Nick De Leon (NDS Colors).png|A lineart of Nick for a promotion
Snapshot 20120207 1.jpg|Nick De Leon in 2011
Snapshot 20121020 4.jpg|Nick De Leon as Char Aznable
Nick De Leon March 2013.png|De Leon as of early 2013
Nick Wilde Drawing 2.0 (Complete).png|Nick De Leon 2.0 self portrait
1512543 674619095893655 1301979281 n.jpg|Nick De Leon managing at NEW Lutherans game against Kewaunee
Nick De Leon Totally Looks Like Tapatio Hot Sauce.png|Nick De Leon Totally Looks Like Tapatio Hot Sauce
NDL high definition.png|Nick De Leon in late 2014
Coming Out Titlecard.png|Coming Out titlecard
2015 NDS persona (1080p).png|De Leon's NDS persona from 2015
Nick De Leon 01022010.png|Nick De Leon from January 2, 2010.
Nick-de-leon-professional-photo.jpg|Nick De Leon's professional portrait from 2016
2017 nick de leon portrait cropped.png|Official ministry portrait
IMG 20170708 150947337.jpg
IMG 20170708 165525192 HDR.jpg
Point Blur Jan082018 183600.jpg
De Leon campaign full body.jpg
De Leon campaign closeup.jpg
IMG_20190116_155940018.jpg|Nick De Leon after a 35 pound weight loss diet. Taken January 16, 2019
IMG_20190116_155256920.jpg|Nick De Leon after a 35 pound weight loss diet. Taken January 16, 2019.
De Leon for Wisco weight loss photo.png|Weight loss picture done in Photoshop by De Leon. Uploaded for a birthday social media post on June 18, 2019.
==Trivia==
*Emily-Nick De Leon and Brandon Runckel are the only voice actors in Gundam on ROBLOX who direct their own shows.
==References==
Category:Voice Actors
Category:Directors
Category:Wisconsin
Category:Americans
Category:LGBT
Category:Nick De Leon
Category:Politics