[3][4] Leal's career began with the role of Dahlia Crede in the CBS daytime serial Guiding Light.

Leal appeared on the 1999 original cast recording of the Off-Broadway musical Bright Lights, Big City alongside Patrick Wilson and Jesse L. Martin.

She then appeared in a recurring role in the short-lived NBC series LAX, as the wife of airport co-director, Roger de Souza.

In 2006, she co-starred in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls as Michelle Morris, Effie White's replacement in the pop group The Dreams, with Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx.

In 2013, Leal played the supporting role in the movie 1982, which tells a story of a drug addicted mother and a father's fight to protect his daughter.

[7] Former Guiding Light co-star Yvonna Wright has said that she and Leal are close friends; the two starred together in a community production of Dreamgirls in their hometown.