Kevin Bleyer, 4-Time Emmy Winner, Dies at 54 in Pennsylvania Crash
The Daily Show writer's family announced his death after a Sunday crash in Millrift, Pennsylvania.
By Ethan Cook ·
Kevin Bleyer, a writer who won four Emmys for his work on The Daily Show, died Sunday in a car crash in Millrift, Pennsylvania. He was 54.
Bleyer was driving on a rural road in Millrift, where he kept a home, when he was killed, his publicist said. No one else was hurt. His family announced his death.
Bleyer worked on Politically Incorrect, the ABC late night show hosted by Bill Maher, from 2000 until that program's cancellation in 2002. He wrote for Dennis Miller's CNBC show during its single 2004-05 season before joining The Daily Show at Comedy Central in 2005.
He spent nine years as a staff writer there through 2013. He also wrote for the 2006 and 2008 Academy Awards shows hosted by Jon Stewart. Bleyer and his colleagues shared writing Emmys in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012, and picked up four other nominations. His work also earned a Peabody and awards from the Writers Guild of America.
His credits reached beyond comedy. He wrote and produced for NBC's Today show, worked as a supervising producer on MSNBC's Ronan Farrow Daily, wrote a weekly column for The Daily Beast, and provided voices for The Onion Radio News. In scripted television he wrote for Disney+'s The Right Stuff, Fox's Sleepy Hollow and Bravo's Significant Others, and created and executive produced pilots for Disney Television Animation, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Showtime.
He also wrote speeches for President Obama, contributing to his annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner addresses, and served as deputy chief speechwriter for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. His books include Earth: The Book, a 2010 collaboration with Stewart and others, and Me the People, published in 2012.
Born in Bethesda, Maryland and raised in Seattle, Bleyer attended Stanford University and had lived in New York City for the past 20 years. He began his career as a dramaturg and assistant to Anna Deavere Smith at the Public Theater and the Cort Theatre before moving to London, where he worked on Marketplace, a Public Radio International business affairs program, with journalist David Brancaccio. In 2013 he lived in Kyrgyzstan, where he executive produced Studio 7, described as the first political satire news show in Central Asia, and later co-founded Pilot Media Initiatives.
Actor and screenwriter Danny Strong said Bleyer was a writer's writer. "His immense talent was only outmatched by his kind soul," Strong said. Producer Llewellyn Wells said Bleyer "brought the wit, the funny, the satire" to their work together. Bleyer is survived by his wife, Nella; his father, Archie; his brother, Keith; his sister-in-law, Kelly; his nephew, Evan; and his niece, Lauren. Donations in his memory can be made to the New York City chapter of the Alzheimer's Association or the ASPCA.
