Dan Levy Canadian Actor and Director Born 1983 in Toronto

Early life

Daniel Joseph Levy was born in Toronto on 9 August 1983. His father is the actor Eugene Levy. He attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute and went on to study film production at York University. He divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles.

Career

Levy began his career in television as one of the original seven co-hosts of the MTV Canada series "MTV Live" in 2006. He became better known as co-host, with Jessi Cruickshank, of "The After Show" and its spin-offs, which were occasionally broadcast in the United States as well. Later he wrote, produced and starred in his own Christmas special for MTV, and he co-hosted the network's red carpet coverage for the MTV Movie Awards as well as national coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver for CTV. He left MTV Canada in 2011 after five years. His early acting work included a four-episode arc on "Degrassi: The Next Generation", the 2012 thriller "Cyberstalker" and the 2013 comedy-drama "Admission", which starred Tina Fey and Paul Rudd.

In 2015 Levy formed the company Not a Real Company Productions with his father and the producers Andrew Barnsley and Fred Levy. Its first project was a pilot for the Canadian broadcaster CBC, and it became "Schitt's Creek". Levy co-created the series and played David Rose in it, appearing alongside his father, Catherine O'Hara, Annie Murphy and Chris Elliott. In March 2019 he announced that the show would end after a sixth season, which he described as a rare privilege because the team could finish it on their own creative terms. From November 2017 he also hosted "The Great Canadian Baking Show" with Julia Chan for two seasons, leaving before the third because of scheduling conflicts.

At the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards the final season of "Schitt's Creek" was nominated 15 times. The series won Outstanding Comedy Series and swept the four main acting categories in one year, a first for a comedy, and became the most-awarded comedy in a single year. Levy personally won Emmys for writing, for directing and for supporting actor, and he was the first person to win an award in all four major disciplines in a single year. In January 2020 he and his father guest hosted "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", and on 6 February 2021 he hosted "Saturday Night Live" with Phoebe Bridgers as the musical guest.

Outside "Schitt's Creek", Levy starred in the HBO television film "Coastal Elites" in September 2020, a project filmed remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. He signed a three-year agreement with ABC Signature in September 2019 and an overall deal with Netflix in September 2021 to write and produce scripted film and television. His directorial debut, "Good Grief", which he also wrote and starred in, opened in limited release on 29 December 2023 and came to Netflix on 5 January 2024. Among his other screen roles are "Happiest Season" (2020), "The Idol" (2023) and "Unfrosted" (2024). He also appeared in "At the Sea" (2026). In 2025 he produced the documentary "Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story", about the all-female music festival, and he is credited as a star and co-creator of the television series "Big Mistakes" (2026).

Recognition

Besides the three Emmy Awards he won in 2020, Levy received four Canadian Screen Awards for his work on "Schitt's Creek". In June 2019 the magazine Queerty included him in its Pride50 list of people advancing equality. In 2023 he was named a Member of the Order of Canada.

Public roles

In August 2020 Levy enrolled in "Indigenous Canada", a twelve-week online course from the University of Alberta, and encouraged others to join it. He hosted twelve livestreamed interviews with the course instructors and guest speakers, and he promised to match donations of up to 25,000 dollars to the university's Faculty of Native Studies.