4-Time Emmy Winner Dies in Car Crash: Kevin Bleyer Was 54

Kevin Bleyer, a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer best known for his work on The Daily Show, has passed away after sustaining injuries in a car crash. He was 54 years old.

The late writer’s publicist told The Hollywood Reporter that he was driving on a rural road in Millrift, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 25 when he lost control and crashed. No one else was hurt.

In addition to winning multiple Emmy Awards, Bleyer received a Peabody Award and a Writers Guild Award. He wrote for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2005 to 2013 and earned all four of his Emmy Awards for the show. He was among several Daily Show writers to write for the 80th Annual Academy Awards in 2008. Stewart hosted the award show.

Before The Daily Show, Bleyer was a writer and producer on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher from 1996 to 2002. He also wrote the Bravo series Significant Others and created/executive produced the Showtime pilot Nightly. 

After his time on The Daily Show, Bleyer wrote for two seasons on Fox’s Sleepy Hollow.

Bleyer wrote Me The People: One Man’s Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution and was a co-author of Earth: The Book with former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. He contributed to President Barack Obama’s speeches.

Honoring Bleyer, actor and screenwriter Danny Strong shared in a statement, “Kevin Bleyer was a writer’s writer. From his many years on The Daily Show to writing Obama’s WHCD speeches to his many books and his work on numerous scripted dramas, Kevin could literally do it all. His immense talent was only outmatched by his kind soul. I am in complete shock that he is gone, and my sadness is overwhelming. I already miss him dearly.”

Bleyer is survived by his wife, Nella; father, Archie; brother, Keith; sister-in-law, Kelly; nephew, Evan; and niece, Lauren.

“Kevin spent his life finding the perfect words to make people laugh, think and see the world a little differently,” Nella said in her statement. “I was lucky enough 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.”