Samuel Franklin Levine (born March 12, 1982) is an American actor, comedian and podcaster. He is known for his portrayal of Neal Schweiber on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's ''

Freaks and Geeks ''Freaks and Geeks'' is an American teen drama, teen comedy-drama television series created by Paul Feig and executive producer, executive-produced by Judd Apatow that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 United States network television schedul ...

'' and PFC Hirschberg in the 2009 film ''

Inglourious Basterds ''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alter ...

''. Levine was also the sidekick and fill-in host on the internet talk show ''

Kevin Pollak's Chat Show Kevin Elliot Pollak (born October 30, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, impressionist and podcast host. He has appeared in over 80 films; his roles include Sam Weinberg in Rob Reiner's legal film ''A Few Good Men'', Jacob Goldman in '' Grump ...

''. Levine was a regular competitor on

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

's ''Movie Trivia Schmoedown''. He returned to the Schmoedown in 2019 and was the manager of The Usual Suspects faction until he disbanded them before the start of the 2022 season. He returned to the Schmoedown as a competitor for the 2022 season, defeating Marisol McKee for the singles championship.

Early life

Levine was born in Park Ridge,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, the son of Lynne, a mortgage broker, and Harris Levine, a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the mouth, oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofaci ...

. He was raised in

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, th ...

. Levine is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Career

Levine began performing

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

at bar mitzvahs at age 12. After having seen him perform,

Lisa Kudrow Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television cha ...

advised him that he should start auditioning in Manhattan. When Levine began his acting career, he added the extra "M" to his name as there was already a Sam Levine registered with the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

. Levine was cast as a character in the sixth and final season of ABC's ''

Lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

'' in a small role that was written for him by ''Lost'' co-creator

Damon Lindelof Damon Laurence Lindelof (born April 24, 1973) is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, and producer. Among his accolades, he received three Primetime Emmy Awards, from twelve nominations. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named him one of the ...

. Lindelof had frequently told Levine, "I'm going to write you something on the show". Levine played a clerk in the twelfth episode, "

Everybody Loves Hugo "Everybody Loves Hugo" is the 12th television episode of the American Broadcasting Company's Lost (season 6), sixth season of the serial drama television series ''Lost (2004 TV series), Lost'' and 115th episode overall. The episode was aired on Ap ...

." He also regularly appears on

Doug Benson Douglas Steven Benson (born July 2, 1962) is an American comedian, marijuana rights advocate, television host and actor, best known for hosting the podcasts and TV series ''Doug Loves Movies'' (2006-present), ''The Benson Interruption'' (2010-20 ...

's ''Doug Loves Movies'' podcasts and fills in as host of the

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

Game when not taped in front of a live studio audience so Doug can play the game as a contestant. Benson has nicknamed Levine both "Samm the Ma'am Levine" and "Lil' Wolverine". Benson referred to 2011 as "The Summer of Samm" because Levine played the game so frequently and competitively. Levine has also been a regular participant on ''

'' since the 1st episode on March 22, 2009, when he was the second guest. He was a guest on Episode 19 as well, just as the show was about to evolve to one guest for the duration of an episode. In February 2014, Levine was voted 99th in VH1's Top 100 Child Stars. Levine was a regular competitor on

's ''Movie Trivia Schmoedown'' where, on December 22, 2017, he won the singles championship. On May 15, 2018, he won the team championship.

Personal life

In March 2020, editor and fellow ''Movie Trivia Schmoedown'' competitor Rachel Cushing announced that she and Levine were engaged. The couple married in May 2022.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Written works

* ''Strip Poker'' (1999)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Samm 1982 births 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors Male actors from Chicago American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American male child actors Jewish American male actors American male comedians American male film actors American male television actors American male voice actors Living people Comedians from Illinois 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American Jews