His mother, Alvina Andreevna Parfyonova (maiden name Shmatinina, born 1931), came from the village of Ulomy; his father's ancestors, metallurgical engineer Gennady Viktorovich Parfyonov (1931–2004), were from Yorga.

Leonid's brother Vladimir Parfyonov (born 1966) is a businessman, owner of a company selling medical equipment.

[9] The first big material, for the State Prize, was devoted to Sergey Solovyov's film One Hundred Days After Childhood (1975).

On regional TV, he interviewed Aleksandr Bovin, disgraced music journalist Artemy Troitsky, and Gunnar Graps, leader of the Magnetic Band.

)[17] From November 1990 to March 1991 - author and host of the information and analytical program Namedni, which he made together with the TV company ATV.

In early 1991, Parfyonov was suspended from the airwaves for making "incorrect" remarks about Eduard Shevardnadze's resignation as foreign minister.

At first, he talked about political figures (Gaidar, Rutskoy, Shevardnadze, Nazarbayev), and then devoted the broadcasts to people who personify any era (Zykina, Kirillov, Magomaev, Pugacheva, Grebenshchikov).

In December 1992, as part of this program, Parfyonov interviewed Evgeny Leonov, which, as it later turned out, was the last for the popular actor,[18] but was not fully shown on television until 2002.

[21] On March 15, 1995, Leonid Parfyonov hosted an episode of Vladislav Listyev's talk show Chas Pik (Rush Hour) on Channel 1 Ostankino.