Leonid Kanevsky was born in Kiev into a Jewish family. At 17 he left for Moscow and entered the Shchukin School, in Vera Konstantinovna Lvova's class. From 1961 he acted at the Moscow Leninsky Komsomol Theatre, under director Efros. He then performed on the stage of the Moscow Theatre on Malaya Bronnaya. The actor gained wide fame for the role of Major Alexander Tomin in the TV series "The Investigation Is Conducted by ZnatoKi". In 1991 he repatriated to Israel, where together with director Yevgeny Arye he founded the Gesher drama theatre in Tel Aviv (Hebrew for "bridge"); its troupe is made up mainly of Russian actors who had performed on the stages of Moscow and Leningrad theatres.

From January 2006 to the present, Leonid Semyonovich Kanevsky has been the host of the documentary series "The Investigation Conducted..." on NTV. In parallel, the actor continues to perform at the Gesher theatre. In 2009 he appeared in the series "Syomin". Kanevsky has played roles in more than seventy films and many roles in theatrical productions.