Who Is Zachary Levi? New Details On The Host Of The MTV VMAs
Zachary Levi felt prettier at the VMAs than he did when he rang in his Quinceañera.
Getty The 28th annual MTV VMAs ceremony took place on June 15th at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California and was aired two days later. For the third time ever, it’ll honor both movies and television, which means Zachary Levi, this year’s host, has a lot to cover.
Wait, who? Who is Zachary Levi?
1. It’s Zachary Levi, the actor and singer!
Zachary Levi Pugh was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. As a child he was frequently moving around the country before finally settling down in Ventura, California. He started acting at the age of six, taking lead roles in classic productions with the Ojai Art Center like Grease, The Outsiders, Ohlahoma!, Oliver!, The Wizard of Oz, and Big River.
2. Once he fulfilled the theater kid stereotype requirements, he moved onto bigger roles.
At 22-years-old, he appeared in the FX television movie Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie. Around that same time, he played Kipp Steadman on the ABC sitcom Less than Perfect. He also briefly appeared in See Jane Date as Jane’s (Charisma Carpenter) potential boyfriend.
3. Then came Chuck!
He started catching the attention of the public when he landed the starring role in the 2007 comedy series Chuck. He and his co-star Yvonne Strahovski were nominated for (and won!) Best Action Actor and Actress in a TV Series at the Teen Choice Awards in 2010.
Other films you can find him in include Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (as Dave's cousin Toby Seville), Tangled (as the voice of Flynn Rider), and Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story (as a narrator for the documentary about the game of Monopoly).
Then in 2011 he hosted the Spike Video Game Awards!
4. Yeah, he’s an avid gamer.
Like Jack Black and Samuel L. Jackson who are also famous gamers, Levi is passionate about video games as an art form and the future of interactive entertainment. In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he shared that he decided to host the VGAs that year because he wanted to pay homage and tribute to all the developers and gaming companies that mold his life and entertainment.
5. In 2010, he founded a nerd company.
No, really! The website is currently under construction, but the YouTube channel is alive and well. Here’s the adorable description:
“In an attempt to express my admiration for all the things we've come to know and love, and subsequently take over the world, I bring you nerdhq.com. My hope is that the site will be a hub for all things nerd. From gadgets and gizmos aplenty, to whozits and whatzits galore. Entertainment, news, hardware, software, and just all around kickassery. Every epic journey begins with a single step, and the first one we will take is into the tried and true field of apparel. Because who doesn't love a witty t-shirt, right?”
In summation, Zachary Levi totally earned the title as one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top Thirty People Under Thirty.
Leah Scher is an ENFP finishing her degree at Brandeis University. She's an alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. She's passionate about Judaism, poetry, film, satire, astrology, spirituality, and sexual health. She draws inspiration for her writing from writer/director Wes Anderson, and for her lifestyle from her grandmother. Lastly, she's always actively seeking two things: a job having anything at all to do with publishing, and a chance to meet Jesse Eisenberg.