From A&E Biography Club Website....
Leland Chapman


Leland Chapman grossly underestimated the power of television. The bail bondsman/bounty hunter/reality TV personality thought he had a bright idea when Dog the Bounty Hunter began production in February 2004.

“When we started, I would wear a T-shirt with my phone number across the back,” says Leland, the 28-year-old son of famed manhunter Duane “Dog” Chapman. “I thought, you know, a little advertising. Maybe it’ll bring in some bail bonds business.” Sure enough, after Dog premiered on A&E in August ’04, there were plenty of calls. In fact, “the phones were ringing off the hook, but it was mostly fans calling for the show,” Leland says. “Now I’m thinking maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.”

Leland’s blend of naïveté and toughness makes him something of a viewer favorite, particularly with the show’s female fans. After two seasons on TV, Leland confesses he’s still a little camera shy. The show’s success has made Dog and his family of bounty hunters more famous than ever in their home state of Hawaii. Sometimes the reputation boost is beneficial, Leland says. Other times, not so much. “We’ve called defendants and said, ‘Yo, you’d better turn yourself in or my dad and I are coming to get you.’ And since they know the show, they’re like, ‘Oh, no, please don’t do that,’ and they’re in my office the next day by eight o’clock. But there are other times when you’re trying to sneak up on somebody, be a little covert, and people are coming up for autographs. How can you sneak up on somebody like that?”

But Leland, a single father of two, has no real complaints because he’s grateful for the life he has. As a teenager, he was heading in the wrong direction, involved in gangs and crime, until his father—a former convict who reformed his life—tough-loved Leland back to the straight and narrow. “If it weren’t for my dad, I would definitely be in prison or I would definitely be dead,” Leland says. “Today, he’s more to me than just my dad: He’s my friend and my brother. I can tell him anything. And I would like for my kids to look at me one day the way I look at him.”

—By Marlon White