About the Author

Bob Levy is a producer, teacher and author.

He's best known as the Executive Producer of Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars and Producer of the movie Sex Drive. A 35-year veteran of the television industry, his career includes work in programming, marketing and documentaries that span broadcast, cable and public television. 

Levy is also a lecturer at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television where he teaches "Adapting and Reverse-Engineering IP for Television" in the Producers Program of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. 

He is the author of Television Development: How Hollywood Creates New TV Series, published by Focal Press, a division of Routledge, in February 2019.

He began his career in television as an intern at WTTW, Chicago's public television station, and worked his way up to writing, producing and directing documentaries. He was also one of three founding producers of the station's nightly news interview series Chicago Tonight, which is still on the air more than 30 years later.

After six years at WTTW he moved to Los Angeles and began work in NBC's On-Air Promotion department, writing and producers promos for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Blossom and numerous other NBC series. Following four years in marketing he transitioned into NBC's programming department where he served as the network's current executive on Mad About You for five-and-a-half years and developed numerous comedies including Caroline in the City and Working.

In 2001 Levy opened the West Coast office of Alloy Entertainment, serving as its Executive Vice President of Television and Film Development and Production and overseeing the Hollywood adaptation of numerous Alloy book series. After 11 years at Alloy, Levy co-founded Citizen Media, an independent production company, and continues to develop and produce new TV series.

Levy grew up in the Chicago suburbs of Lincolnwood and Skokie and attended Niles West High School. He majored in English and History at Brown University where he graduated cum laude.