Quick Facts
Biography
Leigh Hennessy is a world trampoline champion who runs the trampoline Website Trampoline Pundit. In addition to being the Trampoline Pundit, she also enjoys a career as an actress and stunt performer in the film and television industries.
Leigh's father, Jeff Hennessy, a retired associate professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then named the University of Southwestern Louisiana) was an expert in the sport of trampolining and was her first trampoline coach. According to Guinness World Records, she holds the record for winning the most US national championships in trampoline for women. She competed for the United States in several world championships in individual trampoline, synchronized trampoline, and double mini-trampoline, winning two world titles.
While Leigh was one of the best female trampolinists in United States history, she was also a successful trampoline coach. She founded a trampoline academy in Lafayette, Louisiana and served as a coach for the United States national team.
After earning a master's degree in communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and working for Congressman Jimmy Hayes in Washington, D.C., Leigh's career shifted to stunt work in Hollywood. She has worked as Demi Moore's stunt double in GI Jane and many other films, television shows and commercials. In 2006, Leigh starred in the opening scenes of The Guardian, a film with Kevin Costner, in which she played the role of the drowning wife. She was nominated for a Taurus World Stunt Award in 2007 for her work in this movie. More recently, she transitioned into stunt coordinating and coaching stunt performers.
Honors
- In August 2007, Hennessy was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in recognition of her trampoline achievements. Her father was already a member of the Hall of Fame, and they are the first father and daughter ever to be inducted.
- World Acrobatics Society Legends Hall of Fame
- Southern AAU Athlete of the Year
- Lifetime achievement award from the International Trampoline Federation
- Taurus World Stunt Award nomination