October 27, 2026Updated October 28, 2026, 3:38 a.m. ET
Kevin Bleyer, an Emmy-winning writer for “The Daily Show” who once wrote speeches for former President Barack Obama, died in a fatal car crash over the weekend. He was 54 years old.
The Maryland native died Oct. 25 while driving on a rural road in Millrift, Pennsylvania, where he owned a home, his family confirmed on Facebook Oct. 27. No one else was injured in the accident.
“Kevin spent his life finding the perfect words to make people laugh, think and see the world a little differently,” his wife Nella Vera said in the release. “I was lucky to know the humor, curiosity, mischief and tenderness behind those words – and to be loved by a man who made my own world more joyful, more adventurous and infinitely more beautiful.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Bleyer’s representative for comment.
Bleyer was born in Bethesda, Maryland, raised in Seattle, and attended Stanford University in California. For the past 20 years, he considered New York his home, although he also owned a house in Millrift, Pennsylvania.
He began his career as a playwright and assistant to playwright Anna Deavere Smith at the Public Theater in New York and the Cort Theater on Broadway. He then moved to London, where he worked for journalist David Brancaccio on the London Bureau of Public Radio International’s business affairs program, Marketplace.
Kevin Bleyer worked under Bill Maher before working with Jon Stewart
Bleyer launched his late-night writing career in 2000 when he joined Bill Maher’s political talk show “Political Incorrect” and remained there until ABC canceled it in 2002. His next gig was on Dennis Miller’s eponymous political talk show on CNBC, which aired for 16 months until May 2005.
He found a stable career in the industry as a writer at Comedy Central with Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” in 2005. He has won four Emmy Awards for his talk show writing and has been nominated eight times. His work on the series also earned him a WGA Award in 2010 and a Peabody in 2015.
During his nine-year tenure on “The Daily Show,” he wrote for the Oscars in 2006 and 2008 when Stewart was the host.
His other roles include being a writer and producer on NBC’s “Today” show, supervising producer for MSNBC’s “Ronan Farrow Daily,” writing a weekly column for The Daily Beast and serving as a recurring voice for The Onion Radio News.
Kevin Bleyer wrote for Obama, Bill de Blasio
Bleyer’s career also took him into politics, writing for Obama’s speeches at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinners. He then served as deputy speechwriter for former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who served from 2014 to 2021.
He has also worked abroad, living in Kyrgyzstan in 2013, when he produced Central Asia’s first political satirical news show called “Studio 7”.
Upon his return to the United States, he co-founded Pilot Media Initiatives alongside writer Dillon Case. The production organization has helped launch media programs focused on civic education in democratically challenged countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Jordan and Estonia.
“Whether it was working with the U.S. State Department in Central Asia to bring political satire programs to that part of the world to bringing biting and poignant versions of ‘The Daily Show’ and many other programs, that’s exactly what Kevin has done,” producer Llewellyn Wells said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “He left the world a better place than he found it. The heavens shine brighter today, the earth has lost an angel.”
He has also written for scripted television programs, including “The Right Stuff” on Disney+, “Sleepy Hollow” on Fox and “Significant Others” on Bravo.
He is survived by his wife, Nella; his father, Archie; his brother, Keith; his sister-in-law, Kelly; his nephew, Evan; and his niece, Lauren. His representative said donations in Bleyer’s memory can be made to the New York chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association or the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
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