Meet Lionel!

If you live in the New York area, and have ever watched the news on WPIX, you know Lionel. And now we know Lionel, too. 

Lionel has become the latest celebrity to speak out on behalf of those who stutter, and it won’t be long before the entire country starts hearing radio public service announcements for the Stuttering Foundation featuring his wonderful voice.

But Lionel wasn’t always fluent with his speech. “It started in grade school, my stuttering,” says Lionel, whose given name is Michael Lebron. “That’s when it was most pronounced. But it’s still there, the tendency.”

For Lionel, grade school wasn’t a happy place. 

“I had glasses, braces, and I was considered ‘husky’ – which was a polite way of saying overweight back in the day. And on top of that, I stuttered.” Lionel says that among his stuttering triggers was the letter ‘L’. 

“The double ‘L’ in the middle of my given name, Michael Lebron, was just too difficult to pronounce, so I used tricks to say my own name. Sometimes I’d do funny voices, or pretend I was imitating someone famous. Other times I’d add a syllable, like an ‘ah’ between my first and last name,” added Lionel.

But for all the difficulties Lionel faced, he did not shy away from a career path that involved public speaking. "It didn't destroy me and made me stronger. I became a prosecutor, a radio talk show host, a stand-up comic and now I’m a TV commentator! I decided to run toward the light and not away from it.”

Lionel credits his hard work and attention to speaking with helping him work through his stutter. “I had to teach myself to never let my guard down when speaking. I’m always vigilant about my next chance to stutter.” He also credits his parents for their unwavering support. “My mother and father never treated my stuttering as an affliction. They believed it was just what made me … me!”

Lionel believes strongly that there is nothing wrong with having a stutter. The problem lies with how people react to persons who stutter.

“I’m so thrilled to be working with the Stuttering Foundation, and to give back to a community to which I belong. My mission is to help the public understand people who stutter. We may seem different, but we are really the same. We are smart, if not smarter! We need your patience and your understanding when we struggle, not your sympathy or your sarcasm.”

October 2013