Kevin Bleyer, the four-time Emmy-winning writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart who also wrote jokes and speeches for President Barack Obama, died in a car crash on Sunday, October 25, 2026. He was 54. He was driving on a rural road in Millrift, Pennsylvania, where he had a country home, his publicist told The Hollywood Reporter. No one else was hurt.
“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. “I was lucky enough to know the humor, curiosity, mischief, and tenderness behind those words.”
The Daily Show
Bleyer began his television career in 2000 writing for Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect on ABC, then wrote and produced for Dennis Miller’s CNBC show before joining Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. He worked on more than 1,000 episodes and shared Emmys in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012, along with a Writers Guild Award and a Peabody. He also wrote for the 2006 and 2008 Academy Awards, both hosted by Stewart, and co-wrote the bestseller Earth: The Book.
Speechwriter and author
Bleyer contributed to many of Obama’s speeches, including all of his addresses to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and also wrote for astronauts, senators, diplomats and the singer Shakira. He was for a time deputy chief speechwriter for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. His books include Me the People: One Man’s Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America and, with former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, How to Sweet-Talk a Shark.
In 2013 he moved to Kyrgyzstan to executive-produce Studio 7, the first political satire show in Central Asia, and went on to help launch satire and scripted programmes in Macedonia, Nigeria, Moldova, Kenya, Jordan and Estonia. His scripted credits included Sleepy Hollow and Disney+’s The Right Stuff, and he was developing a pilot about New York politics for HBO at the time of his death.
Early life
Born in Bethesda, Maryland, and raised in Seattle, Bleyer was a child actor who played Gene Hackman’s grandson in the 1985 film Twice in a Lifetime. He graduated from Stanford University in 1994 and began his career as a dramaturg and assistant to Anna Deavere Smith at New York’s Public Theater.
“Kevin Bleyer was a writer’s writer,” said his friend Danny Strong. “Kevin could literally do it all. His immense talent was only outmatched by his kind soul.” He is survived by his wife, his father, his brother and his brother’s family. His family asked for donations to the Alzheimer’s Association New York City Chapter, where he volunteered, or to the ASPCA.