Carlos Leos. was born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the third child of a U.S. Military Veteran, single mother, Clarese from Virginia. After finishing high school in 1994, Carlos chose to pursue his love and passion for creating music.
After several years writing songs and collaborating with local artist on the Texas scene, in early 2000, under the stage name Dub U. B., he formed a group called the 820 Rydaz. The Rydaz consisted of 4 total members.
1 from the South Side of Fort Worth, Texas, 1 from the West Coast, 1 from the North Side of Fort Worth Texas, and of course Carlos from the East Coast. After collaborating with a few other groups, Carlos formed the group known as A.
I.T.F (All In The Family). The group was supposed to be a mega group that featured multiple groups and solo artists that would help each next group in the "Family" to be successful as artists.The idea of the 820 Rydaz was a N,S,E,W compass of different styles.
The idea worked. When the Rydaz began turning ears with their unique flavor, the attention of other independent artist and labels began to turn in their direction as well. After many successful performances at local car and house shows, they were contacted by a representative of Latium Entertainment about a possible deal.
Carlos decided to split from 2 of the members and kept the Rydaz group formed with friend and collaborator, Nuno (The North Star) From North Fort Worth, Texas. With a division of Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records knocking at their door with a potential deal, the two began writing and collaborating with artists under the Latium/Warner/Atlantic label.
The 2 have worked with such artist as Houston, Texas based Swishahouse, and Dope House record label, Woodgrain Boys, Grimm, Capone, Smoke Beatz, MarcoPolo, Breeze & Thyra, Baby Bash, Immortal Soldierz, Silk, Big G, Marques Calloway, MBK, DJ 2Swift, and many others.
In early 2001, Carlos and Nuno met and became friends with the legendary artist, Buddy Miles. After several successful local shows and a performance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas, Buddy Miles, quickly approached the duo with an offer of management.
The Rydaz accepted and soon were on the local radio shows promoting their manager, Buddy, their potential deal with Latium Entertainment, and their new song off of their debut album, "How We Ryde" titled, "Fresh Ta Death".
The song off of their 1st duo album as the Rydaz hit the airwaves and continued to turn many ears.Later that year, the Rydaz were shooting a video for their hot new radio release, when Carlos was approached by the producer of the video to play a small part in a film project he was working on.
Reluctantly, Carlos accepted the offer for the part and also helped several other artist break into the film industry. The hip hop writer and artist quickly became a household name with his acting and was offered a 9 movie deal contract with Ponderous Productions out of San Antonio, Texas.
After debuting in a feature film that had a red carpet release, went straight to DVD and Blockbuster shelves everywhere, Carlos was offered several other roles in other's films. He fell in love with being in front of the camera and took a break from the Rydaz.
He continued working on soundtracks for feature films and shorts, but after landing starring roles in independent films like "Serial Rabit", "Barrio Angelz", "Cartel Killaz", "Last Blood", and "V.O.S.
O.T.", he decided to start writing his own stories.In 2006 Carlos wrote a story and sent it to family friend and New York Times best-selling author, Andrew Vachss. Afer the advice of his friend and former manager, Buddy Miles and the encouragement of family friend, Andy Vachss, he took on the pseudonym of Amard Efil, decided to shape the story into a novel, and in 2012, was published with his 1st fiction novel in print, "Dark Shadows from Within.
" The novel received good reviews and Carlos decided to continue his novel writing. He has since published a novel every year since his 1st title and is working on several film projects, screenplays, novels, and short films.
He continues to ghost write for artists, and write and record music for feature films, shorts, and animated stories, but his love has become producing, writing, starring in, and directing his own stories into films.
Leos is acting and writing screenplays for several future features and working hard to build positive relationships within not just the minority communities, but in any community he can. He and the organizations he is a part of volunteer their time, efforts, and resources to the "at risk" youth in the communities, and Leos is a strong advocate for change.
He sits on the New America School, board, and works with associates to build curriculum in health and fitness, music, writing, acting, production, voice acting, and much more, to many of the high schools in the area.
He is also a member of the Scholarship Committee and the Entertainment Committee within these organizations.He lives in Philadelphia, Pensylvania where he is from and has 2 children. His son is also a young and upcoming musical artist as well.
