Leila grew up in in northern California. She took piano lessons from the first grade on, and began writing music at age seven.
Throughout grade school and high school she participated in various musical groups: orchestra, marching band, choir, chamber ensembles and musical theater. She took vocal lessons and competed in state wide competitions where she earned top marks for her musicality. She also gained recognition for her improvised renditions, or "Motaeizations" as one judge was prompted to call them, of the classical and romantic composers.
In her mid-teens, she started composing pop music and settled on the guitar as a second instrument. She began playing out at different bars and clubs in San Francisco as well as composing music for television and independent filmmakers in the Bay Area and Santa Cruz.
To take her career to the next level, she decided to study music theory and composition at UC Davis, where she continued her private training in piano and voice. She performed with the University Choir and Chamber singers at a variety of venues including the Mondavi Center, worked with the UCD Symphony Orchestra, performed pieces for solo piano at numerous university concerts. She also studied Latin music at the Universidad de Catolica in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After graduation she moved back to San Francisco, where she currently lives, to pursue her career and record her debut album.