| Played by | Ken Leung |
| Name | Leon T. Tao |
| Status | Alive |
| Date of birth | February 13, 1979 (Age 36) |
| Social Security # | 013-00-6062 |
| Occupation | Accountant, Money Launderer |
| Residence | New York, NY, U.S. |
| Affiliation | Finch and Reese |
| First appearance | “The Contingency” |
| Latest appearance | “All In” |
| “ | Man. I so don't get paid enough for this crap. | ” |
— Leon | ||
Leon Tao is a former forensic accountant and three-time Person of Interest. He is targeted to die by the Aryan Nation, the Russian Mafia and Nigerian fraudsters and is always saved by the timely intervention of Reese and Finch. He returns the favor by helping them out with persons of interest that require his skills.
Character Background[]
After receiving an MBA from New York University, Leon began working as an accountant at the firm of Bear Stearns, until he was downsized when the firm was sold to JP Morgan when the recession hit. He then took a job at what he believed was a small start-up business, which was in fact the corporate arm of the Aryan Nation; and he was laundering money from their methamphetamine sales.
The Machine produced his number after he stole eight million dollars from his employers and lost a large portion of it in the stock market. It's hard to say how much he actually lost, as he repeatedly lied about the actual amount. Leon took one million in bearer bonds and attempted to run away. He was captured by Byron and several other operatives of the Aryan Nation, but Reese helped him escape, although the one million in bonds was chewed up by Byron's former attack dog. Following this incident with the bearer bonds, Reese names the dog Bear (“The Contingency”).
His number came up again after he got involved in gold farming and subsequently found himself in trouble with the Russian Mafia. Reese took care of the assailants after they threw Leon through a window. He was then blindfolded and brought to the Library because Reese didn't know how else to protect him while he and Finch were out saving another number.
Leon as an EMT. (“Relevance”)
Leon eventually made himself useful by helping Finch track down the people threatening Madeleine. He also made friends with Bear by sharing a bowl of instant noodles with him. After he successfully assisted Finch and Reese, he told them that he was not the kind of guy to let them down (“Critical”).
Leon posed as an EMT to help Finch and Reese "abduct" Sameen Shaw after she was supposedly murdered by Hersh. He revealed along the way she tried to strangle him so he drugged her and warns them to keep their distance before leaving (“Relevance”).
Leon as Jason Bao. (“All In”)
Leon became a person of interest for the third time after he tried scamming a group of Nigerian scammers. Reese and Bear arrived just in time to protect Leon from getting his intestines cut out. Bear was very happy to see Leon again.
When an elderly gambler's number came up, Leon joined Finch and Reese working undercover in a casino by pretending to be Jason Bao, a playboy millionaire with a taste for pink-haired girls and tequila. (“All In”)
Reese left Bear in Leon's care while he and Shaw went looking for Root and Finch after they went after the Machine (“God Mode”).
Character Notes[]
- In the press release for “The Contingency”, Tao was credited as Leon Sung.
Trivia[]
- Along with Alicia Corwin, Leila Smith and Sameen Shaw (“Firewall”) (“Baby Blue”) (“Trojan Horse”), Leon is one of the few people who know about and have been in the Library.
- Tao doesn't know about the Machine, but is one of two people who has seen Reese interact with it (“The Contingency”), the other being Sameen Shaw (“God Mode”).
- He calls Finch "Finchy" (“All In”).
- Leon's number has appeared the most frequently: three times to date.
- He is also one of six people whose number has come up more than once since the show began, the other three being Logan Pierce, Carl Elias, John Reese, Harold Finch and Joss Carter. However, Pierce's number came up twice in one episode, while Leon's, Elias', Reese's, Finch's and Carter's have come up across multiple episodes.
- Leon is mentioned to be taking care of Bear during the events of “God Mode”.
- Leon's number is the first and one of the three numbers that Reese has gotten himself from the Machine instead of Finch, the other being Hanna Frey's and later Sofia Campos.
- The soundtrack of season 2 has a song called "Niet nog een keer Leon", which is dutch for "Not again, Leon". This probably refers to him getting in trouble multiple times.
Appearances[]
Season 2[]
- “The Contingency”
- “Critical”
- “Relevance”
- “All In”
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