Jonathan Ira Lovett (born August 17, 1982) is an American podcaster,

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

, journalist, and former

speechwriter A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches to be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are employed by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors. They can also be em ...

. Lovett is a co-founder of

Crooked Media Crooked Media is an American progressive political media company. It was founded in 2017 by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, all former top Barack Obama staffers and co-hosts of the '' Keepin' It 1600'' podcast. Dan Pfeiffer, also a ...

, along with

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau ( ; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

and Tommy Vietor. All three formerly worked together as White House staffers during the Obama administration. Lovett is a regular host of the Crooked Media podcasts ''

Pod Save America ''Pod Save America'' is an American Progressivism in the United States, progressive political podcast developed and distributed by Crooked Media. The podcast debuted in January 2017 and airs twice per week, hosted by a rotating cast of former B ...

'' and '' Lovett or Leave It''. As a speechwriter, he worked for both President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

when she was a

United States senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

and a 2008 presidential candidate. Lovett also co-created the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

sitcom '' 1600 Penn'', and was a writer and producer on the third season of

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's '' The Newsroom''. Lovett appeared as a contestant on ''

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

'' in 2024.

Early life

Lovett was born and raised in Woodbury, Long Island in a

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous rev ...

family of Ukrainian ancestry that operated a box factory started by his grandfather. He attended Syosset High School. Lovett graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

in 2004 with a degree in mathematics. His senior thesis, ''Rotating Linkages in a Normed Plane'', led to a related publication on the same topic in ''

American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an exposi ...

''. Lovett was the Williams College class speaker at his commencement ceremony in 2004. After graduation, Lovett spent a year working as a

paralegal A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant or paralegal specialist, is a legal professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with an admission to practice law. The market for p ...

and doing

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

on the side.

Political speechwriter

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. He briefly worked in Jon Corzine's

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

office. He was hired in 2005 to assist Sarah Hurwitz as a speechwriter for then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and he continued to write speeches for her through her 2008 presidential campaign. When Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic primary contest, Lovett won an anonymous contest to write speeches for

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. Lovett wrote speeches in the Obama administration for three years, working closely with

and David Axelrod. Prominent speeches that he wrote include policy speeches on financial reform and

don't ask, don't tell "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on Sexual orientation in the United States military, military service of homosexual people. Instituted during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, Clinton administration, the pol ...

, as well as remarks at the

White House Correspondents' Dinner The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the president of the United States. The WHCA was founded on February 25, 1914, by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor ...

. Lovett secretly officiated the first same-sex marriage in the White House, before the Obama administration supported same-sex marriage.

Media career

Television

In 2011, before Barack Obama ran for reelection, Lovett left the White House and moved to California to become a screenwriter, citing a desire to write independently and focus on creative comedy full-time. He 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. He then worked as a writer, producer, and advisor on season three of

's ''The Newsroom''. From 2012 to 2015, Lovett also contributed opinion pieces to venues like ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

''. In 2024, he competed on the 47th season of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

reality television show ''

''; he was the first contestant voted off the season.

Crooked Media

Starting in March 2016, Lovett co-hosted The Ringer's political podcast '' Keepin' it 1600'' with former fellow Obama staffers

, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor. The podcast was intended to cover the 2016 presidential race and not expected to continue after that. 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. So they founded a liberal media company, Crooked Media, with the flagship podcast ''Pod Save America''. 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 Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

, and Lovett has been characterized as providing comic relief to the programming. 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. The podcast, typically recorded in front of a live audience in Los Angeles, embarked on national and international tours featuring live versions of both ''Pod Save America'' and ''Lovett or Leave It''. He was also involved in launching Crooked Media's voter recruitment and education project, Vote Save America.

Personal life

Lovett is gay. He and investigative journalist and author

Ronan Farrow Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow (born December 19, 1987) is an American journalist. The son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, he is known for his investigative reporting on sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Wei ...

became romantically involved in 2011. 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. 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. On March 14, 2025, Lovett and Ari Schwartz, chief of staff at Crooked Media, announced their engagement.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lovett, Jon 1982 births 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American screenwriters American gay entertainers American gay writers American LGBTQ comedians American LGBTQ screenwriters American male comedians American male television writers American mass media company founders American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American political podcasters American Reform Jews American speechwriters California Democrats Comedians from Los Angeles Comedians from New York (state) Crooked Media Gay comedians Gay Jews Gay screenwriters Jewish American comedians Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish American screenwriters Jewish American television writers Television writers from California Jewish male comedians LGBTQ people from New York (state) LGBTQ podcasters LGBTQ Reform Jews Living people New York (state) Democrats Obama administration personnel People from Woodbury, Nassau County, New York Screenwriters from New York (state) Survivor (franchise) contestants Syosset High School alumni Television producers from California Television producers from New York (state) Williams College alumni Writers from Los Angeles Writers from New York (state)