Who Is Harvey Levin? 5 Things You Need to Know

Harvey Levin has recently dominated headlines for having a secret meeting with President Donald Trump. But he’s been in the news far longer than that.

Best known as the founder of TMZ, Harvey Levin’s had an interesting career in crime, celebrities and entertainment. But who is Harvey Levin, exactly?

If you’re still wondering, look no further. ENTITY’s got you covered. Here are five things we know about the TMZ founder.

1 Harvey Levin didn’t start off in entertainment.

Before going into entertainment, Levin was pursuing a law career. He worked as a California attorney from 1975 to 1996. And in the mid-70s, Levin even taught law at the University of Miami School of Law.

The debate surrounding California’s Proposition 13 about property taxes pushed Levin under the limelight. He had participated in a number of debates about it and then used the fame to contribute legal advice on a radio show where people knew him as “Doctor Law.”

On top of this, he also wrote columns for the Los Angeles Times for seven years.

2 After that, Levin landed his first television job.

In 1982, he worked for Los Angeles-based KNBC-TV and covered legal issues. Later, he joined KCBS-TV and spent a decade in investigative reporting and legal analysis.

He became a legal analyst for “The People’s Court,” a show that he was associated with for at about 25 years.

3 As Levin became popular on screen, he used his legal knowledge to continue to advance his career.

But even after all this experience, it wasn’t until the O.J. Simpson murder case when his television career rose to prominence. At that time, Levin’s interest in investigative reporting nearly backfired when he accused prosecutor Marcia Clark of entering O.J. Simpson’s house without a warrant.

However, the “evidence” he presented was proven wrong.

This experience with the O.J. Simpson case, however, only piqued his interested with celebrities and crime. So he developed “Celebrity Justice” to delve into those two topics. However, TV networks didn’t like the idea and it took seven years before actually launching the show. Unfortunately, the show wasn’t very successful and it was officially cancelled in 2005.

4 Then came TMZ…

When AOL and Telepictures Productions launched TMZ in 2005, Levin served as the founder and managing editor. The website quickly became successful when it broke the story of Mel Gibson’s DUI arrest and his following antisemitic rant.

And eventually, TMZ became known for breaking numerous high-profile celebrity stories, including Chris Brown’s abuse of Rihanna, Heath Ledger’s death and Michael Jackson’s death.

5 And recently, he’s taken on a new role: media critic.

After a month of speculation, Levin finally opened up about his meeting with President Donald Trump. During a panel discussion at a conference for the National Association of Broadcasters, he confirmed that he talked to Trump about a “project.” “But we talked about other stuff too,” Levin added.

And instead of discussing the “other stuff,” he diverted to how he feels that traditional media is now mean.

“What I find unbelievable is the bullying in traditional media,” he said. “When you pretend like you’re objective, but you’re not, and you are angry and you are trying to kill and bully, I think that is killing [them]. And I don’t think they know it yet, but I think some of the trusted names in news are not trusted anymore because of this.”