Sign emcee placed before part of a character actor (3,6)

'actor' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'sign emcee placed before part of a character' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'sign' could be 'leo' (star sign) and 'leo' is located in the answer.
'before' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found in the answer.
'character' could be 'r' and 'r' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?