Jon Lovett is lowkey the original guy with a podcast. But he’s so much more than that. He’s also a former speechwriter and White House staffer, screenwriter, TV producer, political pundit and now, a reality star. Plus, he’s Jewish!
Here are 18 things to know about him.
1. Jon Lovett was born on Aug. 17, 1982 in Woodbury, NY to a Jewish family.
2. He’s a Leo!
3. This is what he looked like as a baby:
4. On is Jewish upbringing, Jon told Hey Alma in 2020:
“My family belonged to North Shore Synagogue. Hebrew school, High Holidays, big bar mitzvah, the whole shabang.”
5. In case you were wondering, his bar mitzvah theme was “Jon’s World,” because he was indecisive.
“So it was just a bunch of cardboard cutouts of stuff I liked — which at that point was mostly video games and television shows,” he explained.
6. His family is Ukrainian Jewish. Here’s a photo of his great-great-grandparents.
7. He attended Syosset High School and graduated from Williams College in 2004 with a degree in math.
8. Jon started his career working for multiple politicians. He first volunteered for John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, he then worked in Jon Corzine’s Senate office briefly before becoming a speechwriter for Hillary Clinton in 2005. He worked for Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign, until she lost the Democratic nomination.
He then won an anonymous speechwriting contest which made him a speechwriter for President Obama. He worked in the White House from 2009 to 2011.
9. During his time in the Obama administration, Jon officiated a secret gay wedding at the White House for his friends Steve and Justin.
“Steve and Justin and I walked through the double doors, into the ground floors of the West Wing, past the Situation Room, down the hall past the offices of the [National Security Council], up the stairs by the cabinet room and the Oval Office, through the doors of the Colonnade that connect the offices of the West Wing to the stately rooms of the residence, and we turned right down the stone path that jutted into the Rose Garden and then I said, ‘Steve, do you take Justin to be your lawfully wedded husband? And Justin, do you take Steve?'” Lovett recalled in 2015.
“We were very nervous,” He went on. “They were nervous because they were getting married. I was nervous because I snuck into my boss’s house to perform a wedding against his wishes in his backyard.”
10. Jon is gay.
“My Jewish identity wants carbs and my gay identity wants abs. JOKES ASIDE, what connects the two for me is the experience of being on the outside looking in — of being an observer figuring out how to fit in, how not to fit in,” he told Hey Alma when asked how his Jewish and gay identities intersect. “Honestly, that was more about being gay in my personal life, but part of being culturally Jewish to me is about embracing your place in a diaspora, in a big diffuse group of people always aware of the struggle to be accepted and the danger that has come for those who weren’t. There’s a lot in common there.”
11. He was in a more than 10-year-long relationship with reporter Ronan Farrow. As Ronan described in his book “Catch and Kill,” he proposed to Jon via a draft of the book.
“Later, when I decided some of that reporting would make its way into a book, I’d send him a draft, and put in a question, right on this page: ‘Marriage?’ On the moon or even here on earth. He read the draft, and found the proposal here, and said, ‘Sure.’”
In 2023, Jon mentioned on an episode of “Lovett or Leave It” that he was single.
12. Jon co-created, executive produced and wrote the short-lived sitcom “1600 Penn.” He then went on to work on the third season of Aaron Sorkin’s show “The Newsroom.”
13. In 2016, Jon teamed up with fellow former Obama staffers Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor to create Crooked Media and the political podcast “Pod Save America.”
14. Then, in 2017, Jon launched his own podcast via Crooked Media called “Lovett or Leave It.”
15. Some guests on “Lovett or Leave It” include Ike Barinholtz, Sarah Silverman, Langston Kerman and clown Zach Zucker. You can watch his conversation with Zach here:
16. He has a dog named Pundit!
17. He was cast on the 47th season of “Survivor.” When talking to New York Magazine about the choice, he said, “It’s just a funny thing to do to go on ‘Survivor.’ Honestly, it’s so funny. Even now, it’s just — so silly.”
18. “It was glorious,” Jon told Stephen Colbert when asked what it was like to be totally unplugged from politics when filming “Survivor.” “We don’t have to live like this anymore!”
You can listen to him talk about how he caught up on the news when he was back from filming.
