Why He's No. 56

Attorney, legal analyst, TV show producer, and entertainment reporter Harvey Levin gained notoriety for his coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial for KCBS-TV in 1994, and later appeared as the legal analyst on The People's Court. In 2002, he created Celebrity Justice, while in 2005, he became managing editor of TMZ.com, and later, host and executive producer of TMZ on TV. Harvey Levin is also a frequent guest of The Kevin and Bean Morning Show and Larry King Live.

Back Stage

Harvey Robert Levin was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 2, 1951. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and went on to receive his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School. In December 1975, he passed his bar exam and was admitted to the State Bar of California. During the late 1970s and early '80s, he taught law at the University of Miami, and later, at Whittier College School of Law in Orange County, California.

In addition to his work as an attorney and professor, Harvey Levin began his career as a journalist in the 1980s, contributing legal columns to the Los Angeles Times and Herald Examiner. He also began popping up as a legal expert on television, focusing mainly on cases linked to celebrities and the entertainment industry. For more than a decade, he was the legal reporter for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. In 1994, Harvey Levin covered what was referred to as the “trial of the century” in the U.S., namely the O.J. Simpson murder case. After he aired a video on KCBS that purportedly showed prosecutor Marcia Clark entering Simpson's home prior to having obtained a search warrant, charges against the former NFLer were almost dropped. The clip was quickly discredited as having been misleadingly edited, and a few days later, Harvey Levin retracted his allegations and issued an on-air apology.  

Forcaste

In 1996, Levin moved to New York to work as a legal analyst for The People's Court and deactivated his California bar license. Six years later, in 2002, Levin served as creator and executive producer for Celebrity Justice until it was cancelled after three years. Today, Levin is a managing editor at TMZ.com, a celebrity news and gossip site launched by Time Warner-AOL in December 2005. He also executive produces and hosts TMZ on TV. He is a frequent guest of The Kevin and Bean Morning show, in addition to CNN's Larry King Live.