Leslie Benzies facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Leslie Benzies
Born	Leslie Peter Benzies (1971-01-17) 17 January 1971 (age 54) Aberdeen, Scotland
Occupation	Video game producer designer programmer
Years active	1995–present
Children	1
Awards	AIAS Hall of Fame Award (2014)

Leslie Peter Benzies (born 17 January 1971) is a talented Scottish video game producer. He is well-known for his work at Rockstar North, a company that creates video games. Leslie Benzies was the main producer for many games in the famous Grand Theft Auto series. This included games from Grand Theft Auto III all the way to Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online. He left Rockstar in 2016. Later, he had a legal disagreement with the company about money he believed he was owed. This disagreement was settled in 2019.

Early Life and First Steps in Gaming

Leslie Benzies was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. When he was young, his family moved to a town called Elgin. When Leslie was about 11 years old, his father bought him a Dragon 32 computer. This was a big moment for him. He taught himself how to program games on this computer. In fact, he even created his very first game all by himself!

A Career in Video Game Creation

Starting Out at DMA Design

Leslie Benzies began his professional journey in video games in 1995. He joined a company called DMA Design. This company is now known as Rockstar North. His first big role was leading the team that made the Nintendo 64 game Space Station Silicon Valley. This game was released in October 1998. After that, he started putting together the team that would create the groundbreaking game Grand Theft Auto III.

Awards and Recognition

In 2005, Leslie Benzies received a special award. He and Sam Houser, who is the President of Rockstar Games, were given a BAFTA Special Award. This award recognized their important contributions to the video game industry.

Helping the Community

In June 2014, Leslie Benzies made a unique purchase. He bought the historic St Stephen's Church in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. He paid a bit over £500,000 for it. His plan was to protect the old building. He also wanted to create a group of community members to help manage it. This showed his interest in preserving local history.

Moving On to New Projects

Leslie Benzies took a break from Rockstar on 1 September 2014. In January 2016, it was announced that he had left the company for good. After leaving, he started new companies. In January 2017, he set up five new businesses. One of these was Royal Circus Games. This company aimed to make games for consoles, PCs, and mobile phones.

On 1 October 2018, Leslie Benzies announced his main new company. It was named Build a Rocket Boy. This company has received a lot of money from investors. They are working on an exciting new game called Everywhere. Another game, MindsEye, was released on 10 June 2025. It was published by IO Interactive.

Games Leslie Benzies Worked On

Leslie Benzies has played a key role in many popular video games. Here is a list of some of the games he helped create: