--- name: "Dan Levy" canonical: "https://film.one/person/dan-levy" roles: ["Actor","Creator","Director","Writer"] born: "9 August 1983" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 66 updated: "2026-09-17T03:52:48.631234+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Dan Levy Actor and creator. Born 9 August 1983 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ## Details - **Work:** Actor, Creator, Director, Writer - **Born:** 9 August 1983, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - **Active:** 2015–present - **Also known as:** Daniel Joseph Levy, Daniel Levy, Dan Levy (VII), Dan 'Tony' Levy, ダニエル・レヴィ, Дэниэл Леви, Деніел Леві, دانييل لافي, Ντάνιελ Λέβι, דניאל לוי, 대니얼 레비, 丹尼爾·里維 ## Fi1m on Dan Levy > Dan Levy built one comedy, played its most anxious character, and wrote it so that the anxiety turned into kindness without the jokes drying up. Whether the trick works away from his father and Catherine O'Hara is still to be seen. David Rose enters a room with his hands up. Not in surrender; in warning, palms out, as though whatever is in front of him might leave a mark on the knitwear. Dan Levy plays him in black and white and at a slight recoil for six seasons of *Schitt's Creek* (2015), and the joke is always the same: the town is not going to hurt him and he cannot stop bracing for it. What changes is what the flinch means. In the first season it is a snob's; by the later seasons it is a frightened man's, and the difference is the show. Levy did not arrive as an actor. He spent five years hosting on MTV Canada, from 2006 to 2011, and took small parts, including *Degrassi: The Next Generation*, before forming Not a Real Company Productions with his father Eugene in 2013. The series they made together is the whole of the case so far. He co-created it, wrote it, directed episodes, and shared the direction of the finale with Andrew Cividino. Since then he has written and directed a feature, *Good Grief* (2023), in which he also appears as Marc Dreyfus, taken a supporting part in *Happiest Season* (2020), and co-created a crime comedy, *Big Mistakes* (2026). We have not reviewed those. What he does well is control the temperature. *Schitt's Creek* starts as a comedy about rich people appalled by a motel and turns, over five seasons, into a comedy about the same people being decent, and Levy manages that without the show going soft or the laughs slowing. He is also the reason David's love life is never the plot. David is pansexual and the series treats his relationships as it treats everyone else's, with no coming-out story to build an episode around. Levy has said of his way of working, "I just have an idea of what I want", and the show bears it out: every character is dressed and housed as a statement of who they are. What he does less well is the first season, which we found thin, and David takes longer than his sister to become a person rather than a set of reactions. We went in expecting to laugh at him and by the second season found we were on his side, and that is the writing as much as the acting: Levy gives every flinch something underneath it, so the man who will not touch the bedspread is plainly afraid of far more than the bedspread. Catherine O'Hara's Moira is still the reason to stay, and Levy the writer seems to know it; he gives her the lines and keeps the reactions for himself. Whether any of this survives outside that motel is the open question. The show was built with his father as straight man and O'Hara as everything else, and on our pages Levy has yet to show what he does without them. Give the series a season, as we said before. Then watch what comes next with some caution and some hope. ## Biography Dan Levy is a Canadian actor, writer, producer and director. Born Daniel Joseph Levy on 9 August 1983 in Toronto, Ontario, he began his career as a television host on MTV Canada, co-hosting shows including MTV Live and The After Show. Levy co-created the CBC sitcom *Schitt's Creek* (2015–2020) with his father, Eugene Levy. He starred as David Rose, wrote and directed episodes, and served as producer. The series also featured his sister Sarah Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Chris Elliott. Levy formed Not a Real Company Productions with his father to produce the show. For his work on *Schitt's Creek*, Levy won four Primetime Emmy Awards in a single year for producing, writing, directing and acting. He has also received multiple Canadian Screen Awards. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, thecanadianencyclopedia.ca, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Haunted Mansion* (2023), Fi1m 51, as Vic — [page](https://film.one/film/haunted-mansion.md) - *Schitt's Creek* (2015), Fi1m 82, as David Rose — [page](https://film.one/tv/schitts-creek.md) ## Also known for - *Happiest Season* (2020), John - *Admission* (2013), James - *Unfrosted* (2024), Andy Warhol - *The Idol* (2023), Benjamin - *Smurfs* (2025), Joel (voice) - *Good Grief* (2023), Marc, Director, Writer - *Stage Fright* (2014), Entertainment Reporter - *Big Mistakes* (2026), Nicky Dardano, Writer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/dan-levy