Harvey Levin
Vital Stats
- Date of Birth:
- September 2, 1951
- Birth Location:
- Los Angeles, California
Why Is He Famous?
As the managing editor of TMZ.com and the face of TMZ TV, Harvey Levin is a living symbol of change in the evolution of the news story. Once upon a time, people relied on newspapers for information about current events. Then along came television, nightly news broadcasts and popular full time news outlets like CNN and FOX News. Now in the age of the interwebs and our increased dependency on all things real time, Harvey Levin is leading the way when it comes to breaking news in the entertainment industry and breaking the collective backs of his competition. When it comes to getting the scoop, he's fast, furious… and honest? So he says.
Quotes
"I'm really into the mundane -- I think you can really make the mundane fun. On TMZ we can do a minute on someone getting out of a car and make it funny. What makes that compelling is that it's real."
– Harvey Levin
Elite Partners
Biography
Harvey Levin grew up in Los Angeles, and as a young adult his goal was to become a law professor. After obtaining an undergraduate degree from the University of California in Santa Barbara, he went to the Windy City to earn his JD at the University of Chicago Law School. Harvey Levin's successful completion of the bar exam gave him the power to make his teaching wishes come true, so he returned to Los Angeles to teach law at what is now called Whittier College School of Law in 1977.The career path of Harvey Levin changed directions when he was asked by his school dean to participate in debates surrounding the taxation-themed Proposition 13. His work on the project brought increased media attention and landed Harvey Levin a weekly radio gig, his own column in the Los Angeles Times and a string of television appearances. Now a budding media personality, the established law professor was curious about what else was out there.
harvey levin on the people's court and celebrity justice
The next step in Harvey Levin's career saw him combine his legal prowess with his new projects on television. He became a legal analyst for The People's Court, a show that he would be associated with on and off for 25 years, culminating in a successful run as the show's producer. He also took an interest in the investigative side of reporting, but it almost backfired during the O.J. Simpson trial, when he accused prosecutor Marcia Clark of entering the defendant's house without a warrant, only to have his "evidence" proven wrong.Harvey Levin's experience observing the trial of O.J. Simpson left him fascinated by celebrities and crime. As a result, he developed an idea for a show called Celebrity Justice that would provide insight and exploration into these two topics. Unfortunately, the television networks weren't keen on the idea and it took seven years for it to finally come to fruition. When it did, the show was a mild success until its cancellation in 2005, something that Harvey Levin felt was due to poor time slots that didn't cater well to the idea of breaking entertainment news.
harvey levin and tmz
In 2005, Harvey Levin was offered the job of managing editor for a new web site venture called TMZ -- an abbreviation for the "thirty mile zone" around Hollywood where studio productions are still considered local. Harvey Levin initially balked at the offer because he didn't feel comfortable on the internet, but he then realized that the 24/7 power of the internet would give him news-breaking capabilities that he never had on television. Harvey Levin took the job and hired back many of his old Celebrity Justice staffers, and the web site quickly became a celebrity news magnet. Intimate details of Mel Gibson's DUI arrest, the audio recording of Alec Baldwin's notorious answering machine outburst, and the video of Michael Richards' career-killing racist stand-up disaster were some of TMZ's most newsworthy stories. Naturally, a TV spin off of TMZ on TV debuted in 2007 with Harvey Levin in the driver's seat.Within four years, TMZ.com was receiving over 10 million visitors per month and the stories just kept on getting bigger. In 2009, Harvey Levin took his site into the political arena to show how the Chicago-based Northern Trust Bank spent a significant chunk of their federal bailout money on ritzy concert events, which eventually forced the company to make a pledge to pay it back. Then, after breaking the news of Christian Bale's Terminator: Salvation on-set spazz and the infamous Chris Brown and Rihanna assault case, TMZ.com was the first media outlet in the world to publish the news of Michael Jackson's passing. While the launch of another Harvey Levin television creation, Beyond Twisted, was a bust, he remained in the spotlight after winning a bet with John Mayer that he could produce a mugshot from the singer's 2001 arrest. After the picture went live at TMZ.com, John Mayer donated $25K to two of Harvey Levin's favorite animal charities. The result was a lot of happy puppies, especially three new ones. Their names? John Mayer, TMZ and Harvey Levin.
Reader Comments: 15 Posts
It's sad really...reading all this pathetic crap about a gay-assed hollywood Jew. None of you were ever on his radar anyways so who gives a f..k. Besides this site is ask men not ask a bunch of love-sick girls.
im sick i...............ask this man for a date on his website ....... i guess i know what the answer is ...................... and i spelled tramp wrong in my last comment.....................veronica
problaly he hasnt found the right lady there a lot of traps out there and he just is confused.................veronica
what a sad day ............... he cant be gay
no he cant be gay my mouth dropped when i read this article that he is openly gay i nearly fainted oh my god what is this world comming to so there really is 1 man for 5 women
I too heard he's gay and thought, Noooooo! IIt can't be true! I 'm another girl who swoons for Harvey. I adore his dry sense of humor. I love watching TMZ, and not just to see Harvey, but for the repartee between himjand his staff. It's their sassy commentary - the quips that point out the cultural subtext - that really makes the show so much fun.
OMG, I would still drop everything in a heartbeat to have a chat with Harvey...there is just something about him that I cannot resist, is it the smile, the style? Harvey is TMZ for me!
Hi Harvey. Where was Max Friday July 17,09 he's one of the reason I watch your show and for you of course. Your both very appealing people. Good to look at , nice to listen too. Have a good weekend
I need to get my gaydar looked at. How can Harvey be gay? That's just wrong, all wrong. I am a straight woman and I can't believe he's gay. Even though I now know he's gay, I still want to kiss him.
Talk about gaydar being off...I am a straight woman & I watch TMZ everyday just to see Harvey. Wow, I guess I need to send that sucker in for a tune up.
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