Kevin Bleyer Dies: Emmy Winning ‘Daily Show’ Writer & Barack Obama Speech Writer Dies In Car Crash At 54 — SkimNews
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- Kevin Bleyer, an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning television writer, died Oct. 25 in a car accident on a rural road in Millrift, Pennsylvania, where he had a country home; his family announced the death. He was 54.
- Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher launched Bleyer’s television-writing career in 2000; he wrote 30 episodes before the show’s 2002 cancellation, then wrote 66 episodes of Dennis Miller and served as a producer.
- The Daily Show counted Bleyer on its writing staff from 2006 until Jon Stewart’s 2012 departure, with 1,041 episodes carrying his credit.
- Obama drew on Bleyer for all of his White House Correspondents’ Dinner addresses, while Bleyer also wrote speeches for NASA astronauts, sitting senators, foreign diplomats, U.S. ambassadors and Shakira.
- How to Sweet-Talk a Shark was co-authored by Bleyer and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, recounting their humanitarian mission to North Korea to negotiate hostage Kenneth Bae’s release.
- Pilot Media Initiatives, co-founded by Bleyer after his 2013 work on Studio 7 in Kyrgyzstan, launches civics-minded media programs; Bleyer produced or helped launch shows in Macedonia, Nigeria, Moldova, Kenya, Jordan and Estonia.
- HBO and Appian Way Productions were developing a pilot about New York City politics with Bleyer before his death.
Why it matters: Bleyer’s credited work spans 1,041 Daily Show episodes and contributions to all of Obama’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner addresses. He also helped launch civic-media programs in six countries; for Appian Way Productions and HBO, the immediate loss is Bleyer’s role on their still-developing New York politics pilot, and he can no longer complete that work.
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