Jon Lovett | |
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Born | Jonathan Ira Lovett August 17, 1982
Woodbury, New York, U.S. |
Alma mater | Williams College ( BA) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 2004–present |
Political party | Democratic |
Partner | Ronan Farrow (2011–2023) |
Jonathan Ira Lovett (born August 17, 1982) is an American podcaster, comedian, and former speechwriter. Lovett is a co-founder of Crooked Media, along with fellow former White House staffers during the Obama administration, Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor. [1] Lovett is a regular host of the Crooked Media podcasts Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It. As a speechwriter, he worked for President Barack Obama as well as for Hillary Clinton when she was a United States senator and a 2008 presidential candidate. Lovett also co-created the NBC sitcom 1600 Penn, and was a writer and producer on the third season of HBO's The Newsroom.
Lovett was born in Woodbury, Long Island [2] to a Reform Jewish family of Ukrainian ancestry [3] that operated a box factory started by his grandfather. [4] He attended Syosset High School. Lovett graduated from Williams College in 2004 with a degree in mathematics. [5] His senior thesis, Rotating Linkages in a Normed Plane, [6] led to a related publication on the same topic in American Mathematical Monthly. [7] Lovett was the 2004 Williams College class speaker at his commencement. [8] After graduation, Lovett spent a year working as a paralegal and doing stand-up comedy on the side. [5]
In 2004, Lovett volunteered for John Kerry's presidential campaign. He was asked to write a statement for the candidate, and his work led to an offer of a writing internship. [9] Then, he briefly worked in Jon Corzine's Senate office. [6] He was hired in 2005 to assist Sarah Hurwitz as a speechwriter for then-Senator Hillary Clinton, [6] and he continued to write speeches for her through her 2008 presidential campaign. [9]
When Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic primary contest, Lovett won an anonymous contest to write speeches for President Barack Obama in the White House. [9] Lovett wrote speeches in the Obama administration for three years, working closely with Jon Favreau and David Axelrod. [4] Prominent speeches that he wrote include policy speeches on financial reform and don't ask, don't tell, [6] as well as remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. [10]
Lovett secretly officiated the first same-sex marriage in the White House, before the Obama administration supported same-sex marriage. [10] [11] [12]
Before Barack Obama ran for reelection, Lovett moved to California to become a screenwriter, [13] [14] citing a desire to write independently and focus on creative comedy full-time. [6] Lovett collaborated with Josh Gad and Jason Winer on the television series 1600 Penn, of which Lovett was a co-creator, executive producer, and writer from 2012 until its cancellation in 2013. [15] Lovett then worked as a writer, producer, and advisor on season three of HBO's The Newsroom. [10] From 2012 to 2015, Lovett also contributed opinion pieces to venues like The Atlantic. [16] As of 22 May 2024, Lovett has been confirmed to be a contestant on the 47th season of the CBS reality television show Survivor. [17]
Starting in March 2016, Lovett co-hosted The Ringer's political podcast Keepin' it 1600 with former fellow Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor. [18] The podcast was intended to cover the 2016 presidential race, and not expected to continue after that. [19] But after the November 2016 election, Lovett, Favreau and Vietor wished to become engaged in politics again without having to leave Los Angeles or return to political campaigning. [19] So they founded a liberal media company, Crooked Media, with the flagship podcast Pod Save America. [20] Crooked Media, and Pod Save America in particular, has been compared to previous left-wing efforts like Air America to match America's Conservative talk radio, and Lovett has been characterized as providing comic relief to the programming. [19] The company has since launched a range of podcasts, several of which regularly feature Lovett.
In March 2017, Lovett began hosting Lovett or Leave It, a panel show podcast produced by Crooked Media. [21] The podcast, typically recorded in front of a live audience in Los Angeles, with Lovett and Crooked Media, embarked on national and international tours featuring live versions of both Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It. [22] Lovett was also involved in launching Crooked Media's voter recruitment and education project, Vote Save America. [23]
Lovett is gay. [14] He and investigative journalist and author Ronan Farrow became romantically involved in 2011. [24] [25] In October 2019, Farrow published Catch and Kill, where he publicly announced their engagement after proposing to Lovett in an earlier draft of his book. [26] [27] However, in a March 2023 episode of his podcast, Lovett or Leave It, Lovett stated that he was single after the end of a "10 and a half year" relationship. [28]