Sonia Leong

Sonia Leong (born May 7, 1982) is a freelance comic artist, illustrator and member of Sweatdrop Studios, who took 2nd place in the first Rising Stars of Manga United Kingdom & Ireland Competition.

Biography
Leong was born in Malaysia and lived in Thailand between 1989 till 2000. She then attended University of Warwick, Economics and Politics BSc (Hons) from 2000 to 2003, and currently resides in Cambridge, UK, regularly attending UK anime conventions, representing Sweatdrop Studios.

Her works with Sweatdrop include 'Once Upon a Time...'; 'Cyborg Butterfly'; 'Satan's Amazon'; 'Murder on the Dancefloor' for the 'Sugardrops' anthology; 'Return to Chenezzar' for 'Pink is for Girls'; 'Model Behaviour' for 'Drop Dead Monstrous' and 'Love Stuffing'.

Her other competition achievements include Winner in NEO Magazine's 2005 Manga Competition and being Joint Judge for the Character Design category of the International Manga and Anime Festival (IMAF).

She illustrated an adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo & Juliet' for Self Made Hero which has since been listed in the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) '2008 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers' and 'Best Books for Young Adults 2008'.

Leong collaborated on Wacom's Manga campaign which appeared in major German magazines using her art to promote the wildly successful 'Pimp My Character' contest featured in the German publication Animania ; her work also featured on the Wacom website in an article promoting the use of Wacom in the creation of manga.

She was the Head Contributor to 'Draw Manga' by Sweatdrop Studios from New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd and headed the conceptual art and design of the Collectable card game 'Herocard Cyberspace' from Tablestar Games. Her work appears in several instructional art books such as '500 Manga Characters' by Sweatdrop Studios from Ilex ; 'Drawing Manga' by Selina Dean; 'Manga Clip Art' by Hayden Scott-Baron and '50 Manga Babes to Draw and Paint' by Chi Hang Li. She contributed a chapter towards 'Tori Amos' Comic Book Tattoo' a 480 page anthology published by Image Comics. She also illustrated a chapter for Tokyopop's 'DOMO: The Manga', an anthology starring the popular Japanese television mascot Domo (NHK).

Her work has appeared in 'Popcorn', a British movie directed by Darren Paul Fisher, starring Jack Ryder (EastEnders) and Jodie Albert (Hollyoaks). Her illustrations were also used on the set of Channel 4's award-winning British sitcom 'The IT Crowd' in series 3.

Leong is currently the Art Director for the 'Aya.Takeo' webcomic ; is illustrating the 'I, Hero' series of children's books for Franklin Watts Ltd. as well as 'Manga Life', a series of self help books for Infinite Ideas.