On September 23rd, Stockton native Brandon Leake took the season 15 America’s Got Talent crown, a $1,000,000 prize, a brand new car, and the headlining of a show in Las Vegas.

Brandon Leake is an award winning spoken word poet, artistic educator, and motivational speaker. He captivated millions around the country and blew away his competition with his emotional spoken word pieces.

After winning AGT, Leake became the first spoken word poet to be on the talent-competition series, and also the first poet to advance to the finals. He spoke powerful pieces about racial injustices, his difficult relationship with his father and with that the importance of forgiveness, his daughter Aaliyah, his sister that passed, and other emotional topics.

Brandon was born and raised in South Stockton by a single mother. He taught English at Edison high school, but later went to be a counselor at San Joaquin Delta College. He has performed his inspiring routines around the world such as New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, and 36 other U.S. states for his Dark Side Tour which promoted his first ever published book of poetry, Deficient: A Tale From My Darkside.

Brandon is Howie Mandel’s second (third of counting the champions) golden buzzer winner, following Grace Vanderwaal and V.Unbeatable. He is also the second African American to win Americas Got Talent.