Harvey Levin

Harvey Levin's career started off quietly. Born in Los Angeles he lived a mostly suburban life and eventually attended college and then earned his law degree by 1975. He was a practicing lawyer in the state of California for over 20 years, focusing primarily on teaching law at a variety of colleges. In the late '70s, Levin became involved with the debate around California Prop 13, an amendment that lowered property taxes. That led the young lawyer to a regular column in the Los Angeles Times as well as numerous appearances on local radio stations. He took to TV, and formally entered the field in the early '80s, first as a legal analyst for LA's local NBC affiliate KNBC. Levin's star rose higher as he was a regular commentator for the O.J. Simpson murder trial in the 1990s. As he became more involved in entertainment, Levin stopped practicing law in 1996. The year after, he revived "The People's Court" (Syndicated 1997-), which led to numerous Emmy nominations over the ensuing years as Levin was a producer. In the early 2000s, he produced "Celebrity Justice" (2002-2005), which functioned mostly as a rough draft for what would become Levin's biggest enterprise: TMZ. In 2005, the website TMZ launched, focused on the "thirty-mile zone" around Hollywood studios. The cutting-edge celebrity news site employed somewhat questionable journalistic practices to break stories, as Levin has admitted they often pay sources. TMZ grew in size and notoriety, especailly after breaking stories such as Mel Gibson's DUI and Michael Jackson's death. In 2007, Levin launched "TMZ on TV" (Fox 2007-), a weekday news show recapping the major stories of the day.