Andrew Levy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Andrew L. Levy 1966 Long Island,New York, US |
| Other names | Andy Levy |
| Alma mater | Columbia University (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Writer,television personality,commentator,humorist,producer,publicist |
| Employer(s) | Daily Beast Directors Guild of America |
| Known for | Red Eye |
Andrew (Andy)L. Levy (born 1966) is an American commentator and humorist.[1][2][3]
Levy grew up inLong Island, New York.[2][3] He attendedColumbia University, where he was a member of the fraternitySt. Anthony Hall and co-founded a newspaper,The Fed, withNeil Gorsuch and P. T. Waters.The Fed was a response to campus liberals.[1][3] "It had no campus visibility. It was sort of like shouting into the wind," Levy said.[4]
Eleven credits short of his degree, Levy served in theU.S. Army from 1990 to 1993 as a combat signaler.[5][3] He was motivated to enlist forOperation Desert Storm.[3] However, Levy spent a year in theKorean Demilitarized Zone and also served atFort Lewis inTacoma, Washington.[5]
After he left the army, Levy returned to Columbia University and completed his B.A. in political science.[3]
After college, Levy received a grant for a year-long internship atNBC News in Washington, D.C.[3] After the internship was over, he was hired by NBC and worked there for two years.[3] Levy enjoyed the job and coworkers, but did not like Washington, D.C., and politics.[3]
He moved to Los Angeles for ten years.[3] While there, Levy was the publicist for theAcademy Awards for five months. He then worked for six years as the deputy communications director with theDirectors Guild of America.[2][6][3]
For three years, Levy played keyboards in the band Dalton Grant, based in Los Angeles.[7][3] He was also in a cover band, Suite 69, fronted by Dalton Grant bass player Aaron Britt and that included Dalton Grant drummer Joey Ponchetti.[5]
In addition, Levy blogged as theCranky Insomniac.[7]
Beginning on February 7, 2007, Levy appeared onRed Eye, theFox News Channel late night talk show hosted byGreg Gutfeld.[2] Levy served as the show'sombudsman—afact-checkinglibertarian who came out for the "Halftime Report" and the "Postgame Wrap-up" to tell the panel what they got wrong and what they missed talking about.[8][9][5] Levy also did fake news reports and later became a regular panelist and co-host on the show.[10][5] He was referred to as "TV's Andy Levy" and was known for hisdeadpan delivery and a catch-phase "I apologize for nothing."[10][2][11][3]
"When the show first started, there wasn't anyone more uncomfortable in front of a camera than I was," Levy said. "And I mean in the 400-year history of television. My hands were literally shaking every time I was on air."[5]
Red Eye ended in April 2017.[12] However, Levy continued to work at Fox News.[13]
In August 2017, Levy joinedS.E. Cupp'sUnfiltered onHLN as a panelist and senior producer.[14][15][12] He left when the show changed its format after a move toCNN in 2018.[15][3]
In 2021, Levy joinedThe Daily Beast podcast,The New Abnormal, as a co-host withMolly Jong-Fast.[16][17]
In 2011, Levy was involved in aTwitter war withChris Brown.[18][19] When somewhat forced to make an apology to Brown, he chose the platform ofRed Eye.[18] Levy said:
I'd like to apologize to Chris Brown and to his fans, who are known as Team Breezy. To Mr. Brown, I apologize for referencing the fact that you beat the crap out ofRihanna. It was disrespectful of me to draw attention to the fact that you put your girlfriend in the hospital. And further, it was not my place to make people remember that you beat a woman with your fists, leaving her with multiple facial contusions, a bloody nose, and a split lip. ...To Team Breezy, thank you for your thousands of tweets which taught me about the creative possibilities of spelling, grammar, and syntax. ... In particular, I'd like to thank the female members of Team Breezy, who have taught me that as long as you can sing, you can beat the living hell out of a woman and other women will still love you. And lastly, I apologize to everyone for using Twitter to subtly address the fact it's disgusting that a guy who put his girlfriend in a hospital can, a mere two years later, be warmly welcomed back into society and appear on shows such asSaturday Night Live as if everything he did magically never happened.[18][20]
Levy also engaged in a minor Twitter war withAdam Levine in 2011 after the latter posted his request thatFox News stop using his music.[21] Levy replied in the same format as Levine's original post, saying, "Dear @AdamLevine, don't make crappy f-king music ever again. Thank you."[21]
Levy took a seven-month hiatus from Twitter in 2018.[3] He says, "Twitter was fun at one point. ... Once it hit a critical mass of people it just started sucking."[3]
Levy is a libertarian and occasionally takes positions that differ fromconservatives andRepublicans.[10][22] In 2011, he defended liberal comedian and television hostBill Maher.[23] In 2016, he said that conservatives "shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the African American community’s frustration" with the #OscarsSoWhite campaign.[22] That same year afterMichelle Obama made a speech he wrote, "Seriously republicans are very lucky Michelle Obama says she has no interest in running for office."[24] In the introduction of his podcast,The New Abnormal, Levy states "I'm a former libertarian who now sits pretty comfortably on theleft."
Levy has also been described as a "level-headed Trump skeptic" who is "comfortable calling out the president on his numerous mistakes."[25] In 2017, Levy took on his former employerFox News and PresidentDonald Trump, saying, "Fox News…have backed themselves into this corner, and now they're the Trump News Network and that's their lifeblood."[12] He continued, "The press is not supposed to be on the side of people in power ever. The press is supposed to be adversarial, the press is supposed to question, the press is not supposed to curry favor with authority."[12]
Levy has two cats, Pixel and Stormy.[26][3] He has never been married.[3] He has said, "Living your life in public is distasteful to me."[3]
