DAVID A. LEVY, Ph.D.
Actor
Once upon a time … in a lifetime long, long ago … I made my living as an actor. It was an exciting (but also nerve-wracking) time. And a perfectly appropriate thing for one to pursue in one's 20s, when life’s possibilities seem boundless.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with some remarkably gifted performers – Gene Wilder, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Ted Danson, Red Buttons, Gale Gordon, Eve Arden, and more. My quasi claim to fame was a leading role on Sid and Marty Krofft's Wonderbug (essentially The Mod Squad for kids with the added bonus of a magical flying dune buggy), for which I earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming. My last professional acting credit was a guest starring role on the series Cheers, where I portrayed the leader of Frasier’s low self-esteem group (a role which I still adamantly maintain was not “type-casting”).
There are many things I miss about acting: the creative process, opening night, the prospect of “hitting it big.” But there’s lots I don’t miss: the auditions, the rejections, my life feeling almost entirely out of my own control. And, truth be told, I got more than a little tired of being cast as “the nerd” in a wide array of television commercials. Not particularly comforting for my already-shaky ego.
